This week another very cool Map driven mapplet and gadget were made available from the Weather Channel – now weather on demand is even more accessible to me.

The widgets can be added to your custom home page, however, I don’t see a mapplet available yet even though news just out today indicates it is available – oh, hold on, try searching for "weather channel" (XML file here) rather than simply "weather" – that’s odd! (weatherbonk, accuweather and others have these available) To add weather channel gadgets to your google home simply login, add stuff, and search for weather.. quite simple.

And finally, weather channel is also available for Google earth as a layer or rich information… see news – The Weather Channel Interactive Introduces New Weather Mapplet for Google Maps; Selected to Provide Weather Data Layer for Google Earth – details as follows – The weather data layer on Google Maps and Earth features current conditions powered by HiRAD (High Resolution Aggregated Data), which is an exclusive patented technology developed by The Weather Channel that delivers a more local snapshot of current weather conditions for the contiguous United States.

HiRAD combines traditional weather observations with data obtained by Doppler radar, satellite, lightning strike detection, computer models, and climate profiles to provide unique conditions for 1.9 million locations.

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The weather mapplet will allow Google Map users to add customizable weather layers to their map. Options include clouds and radar points of interest, including U.S. and international cities, airports, lakes and schools.

When a point of interest is selected a bubble will appear on the map with current weather conditions and temperature displayed. If there is severe weather for a point of interest, the bubble will appear in red with details of the alert.

Current conditions in the Google Earth weather data layer are displayed in a pop up window and include temperature, humidity, wind speed, pressure and dew point, along with an observation of overhead sky conditions. Forecast data includes a 36-hour forecast and links to hourly updates along with a 10-day outlook on weather.com.

The weather information combines data from Doppler radar, satellite, lightning strike detection, computer models, and climate profiles to provide conditions for 1.9 million locations.
 

They have started with three videos for games that could be affected by the drop in temperature now that November is under way.

The segments weigh in at about 90 seconds, plenty of time to find out if the Giants have an advantage over the Cowboys in their upcoming late afternoon rematch this weekend. It turns out the Cowboys aren’t so great when the temps drop below 59 degrees: only 4-4 over the last year and a half.

Other videos looks at the Browns-Steelers matchup in Pittsburgh (forecast = chilly), and Vikings-Packers (forecast = astonishingly warm for Lambeau Field).

We would like to see The Weather Channel link videos from the team pages they maintain, when those videos are available. Currently, getting to those videos means finding the link on the ‘Weather for NFL Games’ page and browsing the menu for them.

Real Weather Comes To Virtual Football

Imagine if the most recent BCS Championship took place in Columbus, Ohio, instead of Cardinals Stadium in sunny Glendale in January, during an epic blizzard. Florida fans and ABC executives would be crying in Ohio State’s stands.

Sadly the same money-hungry who perpetuate a non-playoff Division 1-A football championship would never risk a marquee game being played in the frosty Midwest in January. Owners of NCAA Football 08 are not held to that restriction.

The Weather Channel announced the availability of real-time weather conditions for games played on EA’s latest edition of NCAA Football for Sony’s PS2 and PS3, and Microsoft’s Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles.

Those consoles will need an Internet connection to tap The Weather Channel Interactive for real-time weather conditions. If the player chooses to use that weather, they can play the game in the middle of a monsoon, which gives the Florida State kicker an excuse (virtually, anyway) for missing an 18-yard chip shot at the end of regulation.

“Msnbc.com And The Weather Channel Partner”

The agreement will allow msnbc users to have access to weather related news, video and interactive features. Msnbc’s redesigned Weather section features customizable current conditions, 36-hour forecasts and regional and national weather maps from weather.com

Msnbc’s weather section will also offer links to in-depth information on hourly and extended forecasts and lifestyle content on weather.com Users can visit sections on weather.com, which offer information on outdoor activities as well as updates on allergies and pollen.

Msnbc will also link to news stories and videos on Forecast Earth a climate related site from the Weather Channel.

This Interactive Weather Map provides a few tools to make the visitor’s experience a more appealing one when looking for stormy conditions. As in Virtual Earth’s implementation, people can zoom in and out of views of an area, down to the Bird’s Eye view Microsoft offers for some cities.

Weather conditions may be seen as colored clouds on the map. Green indicates rain, and at press time can be seen in the Pacific Northwest. Winter is still in action in the Northeast, with grey clouds obscuring much of Pennsylvania and some of upstate New York.

The map’s transparency can be adjusted with a slider control. Zero transparency lets the weather obscure the underlying map. Adjusting it permits the map features to be seen underneath the prevailing cloud conditions.

Switch the weather layer from “Radar” to “Clouds,” and the prevailing cloud cover appears. The colors of the clouds represent their temperature. The two layers can be active at the same time, but only the green rain clouds show through clearly.

People who like to watch the pretty clouds go by can hit the Animation ‘play’ button and see the sequence of movement. The layer in view will determine the period of time rendered for the cloud motion.

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The Weather Channel’s website now offers a way to enlighten your visitors with the current conditions. Their widget, called Weather On Your Website, can be added for free; registration is required.

Once registered, the widget can be customized by shape, color, and of course location. Here’s what one of the four shape options looks like for the local area:

Site visitors can find their weather through Weather.com's search box in the widget. It's a straightforward little application. There's no social networking, no up or down voting on the weather, just very direct, high quality information.

In other words, it's a welcome widget in a world of applications that demand more and more of a person's time and effort to fully benefit from them. Why shouldn't we talk about the weather, anyway?

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Since I live in a state where tornado season means always having some sort of weather alerting media on, like a weather radio, the television, or the car radio while traveling, a desktop application makes sense to have since I’m in front of a computer for a lot of time during the day.

The Weather Channel’s Desktop Weather program, in its free ad-supported form, makes a thunder noise and flashes red in the PC system tray when a severe weather alert has been broadcast. That happened a few minutes ago as I worked on another story.

With a flick of the mouse, I clicked the icon to see what Mother Nature might be sending my way in the wake of a string of thunderstorms. Just as I parsed the phrase “Severe Weather Alert,” a vomit-green advertisement filled the entire window of the application.

For several seconds, I was informed that my world and my weather was being delivered by AT&T. Why thank you, Mr. Ed Whitacre. My heirs will be so pleased to know that I may have spent my last seconds in my mortal shell viewing your Death Star logo instead of sprinting for a safer place had a tornado been barreling through the neighborhood.

Now, I understand and appreciate those online firms that make a useful service available with ad support. I get it, and I don’t have to be convinced of the value of the tradeoff. Desktop Weather is a useful application, and sometimes I even find the advertisements of personal interest. I have no problem with this.

However, delivering an ad when someone clicks to check on a severe weather alert doesn’t look like a real clever approach to me. Whoever proposed this “level of functionality” should be subject to what Scott Adams might call a “quality process audit.”

I’d suggest a healthy dose of pointy sticks and fire ants as well, but I’ve got to move the car. Seems we have hail entering the area, and unlike Whitacre I don’t have a chauffeur to park my car in the garage in weather like this.

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David Utter is a staff writer for WebProNews covering technology and business.