MeteoEarth is a fantastic free website and app that lets you view weather patterns around the world on your IWB or tablet. You can view live or see a forecast for the day ahead.

When opened, MeteoEarth presents you with a 3D globe much like Google Earth. You can then pan and zoom around the globe and overlay different weather conditions such as temperature and wind speed and direction. You can also track tropical storms and hurricanes as they happen and see their predicted paths.

MeteoEarth lets you track data such as Rainfall, temperature, wind speed and direction, cloud cover and air pressure.

Children could spot weather fronts coming in, track weather changes over the space of a few weeks, look at hot / cold areas and how they vary. They could look at how the wind moves – what patterns can they see. How and where does it change direction?

The website is free to use.  Apps are free with premium paid-for functions. You can see all the app versions here.

Geography and Science teachers will definitely find a use for MeteoEarth. The children could become weather forecasters and use the information to predict what will happen over the next few days. It’s quite hypnotic to see some of the global jetstreams working their way around the Earth. If they hear about hurricanes or tropical storms on the news, they can view the path of the storm using the app.

You can even make your own live map view and embed it into a blog or the school website!

You can find out more at: http://www.meteoearth.com