UMapper is a neat map creation tool that I reviewed back in October. At the time of that review the service was promising, but buggy. I looked at it again today after reading about a new feature they’re offering. The new feature allows you to quickly create your own custom weather maps. I gave it a try and discovered that since my last review of UMapper the usability has improved significantly. Creating my weather map with UMapper was a simple matter of choosing a map, highlighting an area of the map, and clicking publish. Real-time weather data is automatically inserted into the map when the “weather map” template is selected. The maps you create with UMapper can be embedded into your blog or website. The video below offers a quick tutorial on how to create your own weather map.

Applications for Education
One of UMapper’s other templates is GeoDart. UMapper GeoDart could be a good way for your students to create a geography game for learning to locate countries, states, and capitals.

Here are some related items that may be of interest to you:
A Visual Guide to Global Trends
MapTrot – Easily Create and Share Maps
Quikmaps – Quickly Customize a Google Map