How to Run US Animated Radar on Google Maps

[ELDoradoWx]

This script is pretty easy to install. I think it's pretty straight forward. I have also developed quite some time ago the AniS (AnimationS applet) Java code needed to exactly replicate NWS radar stations animated radar that I may post up sometime later, but first I'll do the Google Maps Radar since its popularity and usefulness is sky rocketing world wide. Radar on Google Maps is kind of cool because you can see what it is doing right in your own back yard.

Sample Single Radar Page:
http://www.eldoradocountyweather.com/current/misc/google-maps/dax/ridge.html

Sample Multi Radar Page:
http://www.eldoradocountyweather.com/radar/radar-google/florida/florida-radar.html

The most current installation instructions, can be found on my scripts page:
http://www.eldoradocountyweather.com/scripts/weather-scripts.php#us-gmap-ani-radar


Radar on Relief Map with Open Street Map overlay

This is the Demo Page for the new "Relief Map with an Open Street Maps overlay".
http://www.eldoradocountyweather.com/current/misc/google-maps/geo-google-radarmap/geo-ridge.html

The map includes the other default map types as well. The map includes, Relief, OSE [OpenStreetMaps], Satellite, Terrain, Hybrid and the regular Map.

I feel that OpenStreetMap is the best FREE street map on the net, which I contribute work to. It is available on the new map by selecting the Relief or OSM mapping options. To view the Hybrid map, select the Satellite map option and click on Layer and select Google Labels.

View the Open Street Map on Google Maps V3:
http://www.eldoradocountyweather.com/current/misc/google-maps/google-maps-v3/v3-openstreetmap.php

I will not be supporting this special map version but I wanted to offer it as another choice.

For customizing it please refer to prior posts in this thread as a guide or on my site. You can grab the code by doing a View Source Code on the page.

All of my other scripts including this one can be found here:
http://www.eldoradocountyweather.com/scripts/weather-scripts.php

Last Edited on 8/4/2011

[Cienega32]

OUTSTANDING!

I run two simple NWS RADARs (El Paso & Holloman AFB) on my site but always wanted the "Terrain - Satellite" options. This takes care of it and lets me add more RADARs along the common travel routes.

Outstanding! Thanks for sharing this!

[mackbig]

very cool
Andrew

[DaculaWeather]

Hey Danny! It works great but I've experienced one problem, and I'm sure it only has to do with the number of radars I'm displaying. Once the window loads the loop gets slower and slower until the window, for all practical purposes, becomes unresponsive. The Chrome window runs about 50% CPU utilization but very little disk utilization. Right now it's loading 8 different radars.

You can try it here: http://www.daculaweather.com/ridge_georgia_master.php (This was an incorrect link if anyone clicked here, fixed now)

[Cienega32]

You're not slowing down for me, Steve. Runs fine with FF 3.6.6.

[DaculaWeather]

Good to know! Thanks! And you're right! i just tried it in IE8 and FF 3.5.6 and it loaded and ran faster. That's good, I was afraid 9 sites might be too many.

[DaculaWeather]

Congratulations Danny! This is very slick and very easy to setup.

You'll need to play around with zoom level and the number of radar sites you want to include. I think 9-10 might be a practical limit but your mileage might vary. The more you zoom out the more sites need to be included. You can see the area covered on mine and I could have included Nashville and Knoxville but didn't.

[ELDoradoWx]

Thanks everyone! I'm glad you like it...

I have been running these scripts for close to 2 years and have never run into the slow down issue Steve is referring to. I have tested it in Firefox 2.xx+ and in IE6, IE7 and IE8.

Concerning the maximum number of radar sites per map, this is a good point. I think you need to do it in moderation realizing that the general public runs at many different Internet speeds. At high speeds like what I am used to running I could put in 20 radar sites per map with no ill effects, but someone with dial up may never get it to completely load up.

I run 8 radars on my Texas map,
http://www.eldoradocountyweather.com/radar/radar-google/texas/texas-radar.html
and it completely loads up in 6 seconds. Keeping the lower Internet speeds in mind, I think you need to be a bit careful on how many radar sites per map you use. It is probably better to make more maps than to cram too many stations onto one map.

[DaculaWeather]

I've created 5 maps, they're located off my main page under the Radar menu.

[Cienega32]

Good point about the slow loaders - I didn't think about that. I'm using 7 RADARs - and it's a good thing I can't use Mexican radar or I would have Chihuahua in there too.

The default zoom of 7 is perfect for me!

Glad to see this thread is a sticky. This is definitely a nice addition!

[weathergirl]

This a great script, Danny, but my map will not display any radar and I know I followed your directions carefully. Any ideas why this is?

[DaculaWeather]

This a great script, Danny, but my map will not display any radar and I know I followed your directions carefully. Any ideas why this is?

I had that problem one time and it was because I had added the radar sites but didn't change the lat/lon in the file. The map wasn't centered in the right place to see them.

[weathergirl]

Thanks Steve, but I know I set the latitude and longitude properly

[ELDoradoWx]

This a great script, Danny, but my map will not display any radar and I know I followed your directions carefully. Any ideas why this is?

Go ahead and post a link to your ridge.html file and I would be more than happy to take a look at it for you.. If you included ridge.html from another page, please let me see that page as well.

[DaculaWeather]

Got it working Danny! Thanks!

[weathergirl]

Here is the link, thanks:

http://www.beamsvillewx.ca/wxridgeradar.php

[DaculaWeather]

Go to here and copy the code...
http://www.daculaweather.com/ridge_test.html

[DaculaWeather]

You'll probably want to add some more radar to fill in the areas around the Buffalo radar. You can remove me css or change it to suit your needs.

[weathergirl]

Thanks, Steve, but I'm getting an "Error 404: File Not Found" message from your link.

[DaculaWeather]

It should be there now...

[weathergirl]

That did it, thanks Steve

[ELDoradoWx]

Here is the link, thanks:

http://www.beamsvillewx.ca/wxridgeradar.php

I see you got it fixed! Very Cool...

Just so you know the problem was from extra code in the javascript..

Changing this -

Code:

Radar[i].feed(stub+" &rid="+Ridge[i]+"&product="+Product);

To this - fixed the problem

Code:

Radar[i].feed(stub+" &rid="+Ridge[i]+"&product="+Product);

In other words it was changing this

Code:

&

To this

Code:

&

My guess is you were probably just trying to validate your code and made the necessary changes which broke the script..

[ELDoradoWx]

Please check the first post for any changes or additions to the script.. Any changes made will be added on to the first instructional post..

[jay_hoehn]

Danny,

This is terrific.  Thanks for the great work.  Where I live we are not covered very well by any radar.  Being able to plot the five closest gives a better picture of what is coming.  Check it out here:

http://www.jayswoodfurniture.com/wx/radar/ridge.html

Great job and thanks,

Jay

[weathergirl]

Hi Danny: Would it be possible for a visitor to choose up to a certain number of radars for viewing?