How to make a Google map!

View Hudson Valley flood reports, March 11, 2011 in a larger map

This is the Google Map that Ivan Lajara started and I helped to finish today. The map is of the floods that have occurred over the past few days. The map represents road closings, flood warnings, fires, and state of emergencies.

Based on the comments we have received on the map, people seem to be finding it very useful...and so we will continue to update it.

I thought I would be the last person to have the patience to sit down and make a map using Google Maps; however, I promise you it REALLY isn't that bad. Actually, once you start it and get into the motions, it's really quite simple.

1) First of all, if you don't have a Google account, you should get one.

2) Next, visit the National Weather Service website and download the National Weather Data that they have in KML/KMZ file format. Click on "Current Weather Warnings" and download the file.

3) Visit Google Maps, click "My Maps".

4)On the left hand side you will see "Import". Click it to import the weather data you downloaded before. This is what it should look like:

5) The next thing I did was go onto the Daily Freeman's website to get the latest updates on road closings, and flood warnings.

6)For example: I want to show that Springtown Road in New Paltz New York was closed due to flooding. I searched in the Google search bar for "Springtown Road, New Paltz NY".

7) The tool bar on the left hand side shows you the point that you selected. (In this case: Springtown Road New Paltz, NY) Click "Save to..." and select your map.

8) Click View Map in the yellow headline at the top of the page to get back to your map.

9) Once you are back to your map you can edit your location. On the left side tool-bar, click "edit". The brown oval is where you can change the title of your location. The blue circle allows you to include a link with your location. To insert a picture, you click the blue and green landscape button that is in the pink circle, underneath where it says "Edit HTML". The square inside of the green circle allows you to change the icon the points to your location on the map. And lastly the yellow circle contains a "delete" option which allows you to delete that location.

10) When you are done editing your location, click "ok". Then scroll up and look at the tool bar on the left. Click "Save" and then "done".

You can do this as many times as you want and you can add as many locations as you want. There are lots of tricks and cool things you can do with google maps if you play around with it long enough. You are able to add pictures and videos as well as include links to other pages or websites. I hope that this was helpful to some people and I will edit it to make it easier or more clear for people.

Also, when you are embedding your map into a website or blog, you can choose what part of the map will come up on your blog/website. For example the map that I embedded at the top of this blog post is not specific to the information on it.

Now this one...

View Hudson Valley flood reports, March 11, 2011 in a larger map

TAA-DAAA! This one is specific to my locations.

To do this simply click "link" on the right hand side on top of the map. Instead of just copying and pasting that code, click "customize and preview embedded map". Now you had choose what size it is, what area of the map to focus on, etc.