DescriptionRain coming? Check Raindar! Animated Doppler radar on Google Maps for the US. Now also on Google TV! (NOT for Samsung devices)
Going somewhere and you're not sure if you need to bring your umbrella? Want to check if there's going to be fresh powder snow on the slopes in Tahoe tomorrow? Check Raindar! Raindar displays animated Doppler radar images on your Google Map. When you start Raindar it automatically focuses on your location so you can quickly see if there is precipitation coming your way. When pressing the search button on your phone you can now also search for locations within the US!
Raindar works out of the box but has many configuration options (see the recent changes page).
Color:
- green/yellow/red is rain
- blue/white is snow
Raindar can now also display storm tracks! It displays different icons for each of the 4 types of storms:
- Yellow circle: thunderstorm
- Yellow square: Hail Storm
- Yellow diamond: Rotating Thunderstorm (Mesocyclone)
- Magenta triangle: Tornado Vortex Signature (pretty heavy!)
When clicking on one of those icons a dialog will appear with detailed information.
The storm tracks also display the direction and speed of the storm in the form of an arc. The arc is split in 3 parts: 20, 40 and 60 minutes until the storm reaches that area.
On Google TV:
- Use the D-pad for navigate up/down/left/right
- Use the media forward/back or next/previous buttons to zoom in and out
Radar images and storm track data courtesy of Weather Underground. Raindar displays images from the WunderMap.
Geocoding courtesy of GeoNames.org.
If you find a bug, or have suggestions, contact me by email.
Known bug: "Crash on start-up on Samsung devices". Some people have informed me that Raindar closes a few seconds after starting. From the the people who emailed me, all were using a Samsung phone/tablet. I'm looking into this issue but unfortunately do not have a phone on which Raindar crashes. Email me (g.h.vandoorn@gmail.com) if you would like to help solve this bug. If Raindar crashes on deviced other than some Samsung models let me know.
Animation notes: Weather Underground only supports up to 6 frames in the animation. The goal of the animation is to see where the precipitation is moving towards.
Location search notes: Google doesn't provide a descent geocoding API. They have one, but this one is very restrictive (they wan't the developer to pay for it, and thus also the Raindar users). Raindar now uses the GeoNames API which is a bit more flexible. However, the system, is limited to 2000 queries per hour. Because of this, Raindar will not give you suggestion as you type in the search bar. However, you can search using the start of a city/town name and Raindar will provide you with multiple results (up to 30).More 2013 © mobvo.com
