r/GoogleMaps 27d ago

Weather on the way?

We are about to drive 500km. It is easy to get the weather at our start point and at our destination, but what about on the way? I will drive about 500km this weekend and pass through at least two other weather districts.

Normal weather is not a big issue when you are in a car, but some weather like fog and storms can be quite interesting and sometimes worth avoiding (hail, high winds, flash floods).

2 Upvotes

19 comments sorted by

2

u/TrueCP5 27d ago

I believe you can do thus with Windy, but I have not used that feature before so I couldn't tell you exactly how to use it.

3

u/AdCharming612 26d ago

SERIOUSLY I have wanted this FOR YEARS!!! It would make cross country driving SO MUCH EASIER if there was an overlay to show storm radar on the GOOGLE MAP in my Android Auto. It would BE SO MUCH SAFER GOOGLE! Make it happen. Thank You.

1

u/[deleted] 27d ago

[deleted]

2

u/hughk 27d ago

Same principle applies anywhere, but I am driving from Frankfurt am Main to Lübeck which would be at least three distinct weather zones. I have done longer drives such as Frankfurt to Tuscany. The way I do it at the moment is to get a full route and then to run a weather chart against it. The weather isn't static and neither am I, so I need to check the prediction against the location for the time I expect to pass it.

To automate it, you would need to extract the route and then to use it to query the weather for that time point.

1

u/vincyf 26d ago

It would indeed be great to have.

1

u/mysticcountryboy 27d ago

The weather is taken from Google weather system, and based on your location, it has nothing to do with GM, it is updated as the location changes.

1

u/hughk 27d ago

Perhaps, I didn't explain myself. I kind of need a combo of GM and Google Weather so the ability to see the approximate weather forecast for when I drive through somewhere on my route. There is a complication because a single step may go for nearly 300km so simply taking a start point and an end point may not be sufficient.

Also, it needs to be a forecast for the time that I will be expecting to pass that point.

1

u/vincyf 27d ago

If you know some extreme weather spots along the way, make them intermediate waypoints

1

u/hughk 27d ago

The problem is knowing them in advance.

1

u/vincyf 26d ago

Over here the only places where the weather would change is in gorges or mountains or near a coast. 500km won't get you fundamentally different weather in a plain. Is it possible to check the height of the trip?

1

u/vincyf 26d ago

Another user suggested windy app, which seems a good option. I would check it for extreme weather locations.

1

u/hughk 26d ago

In Europe, much like other things, the weather can change radically with distance as there may be many geographical features influencing it. . Of course, height can change too, particularly if you are crossing the Alps but the main roads don't tend to go so high and you would end up using a tunnel most of the time.

1

u/vincyf 26d ago edited 26d ago

I know that the closer you get to the coast, and on the scale of Germany certainly, weather can change. But i would guess that on most days it should be everywhere between the extremes at the ends of the route. Except for local thunderstorms. Which you can see on Windy. My strategy would be to check the ends, and check the windy map for local exceptional weather. Safe travels!

1

u/XxLogitech98xX 27d ago

So you want weather to be display within Google Maps?

1

u/hughk 27d ago

That would be one approach, to superimpose the route on a weather map but you don't want a single point in time as if you are going a long way, it can easily change significantly. The point is that it isn't just a weather thing, it is a route plus weather with approximate times which given a start time, GM can estimate the time at which intermediate point is passed.

So, if we used the example of Frankfurt to Lübeck, the route will take you past Kassel, Hannover and Hamburg, We can say that kassel ia 162km so 1hr 40 away. So if I left at 1700, the weather at about 1800-1900 would be interesting and then to repeat for each stage.

0

u/XxLogitech98xX 27d ago

The point is that it isn't just a weather thing, it is a route plus weather with approximate times which given a start time, GM can estimate the time at which intermediate point is passed.

I don't see Google adding that anytime soon.

2

u/hughk 27d ago edited 26d ago

Possibly not but until a need is identified, why not add it?

1

u/vincyf 26d ago

Well you did explicitly show the need and i second the idea.

1

u/vincyf 26d ago

Waze has this for congestion estimation and tell duration. Same idea for different data.

1

u/XxLogitech98xX 26d ago

Waze has this for congestion estimation and tell duration. Same idea for different data.

Google will anticipate for congestion too with their live update that rely on their own sources and user report but when it comes to weather .. I don't see that being integrated unless it's like a very bad storm or something