Yesterday we came across a great post about UMapper by the social media guru Dan Manson in which he gives an in-depth description of our newly released weather template as well as other features. Please read the entire post on Dan’s blog. Here is what Dan thinks about our weather maps:

Creating a UMapper live weather map really is a piece of cake. Just log into UMapper, choose the weather template, zoom in on the area you want to display, save, and copy the resulting code to your blog. Done. Clickable temperature markers show the five-day forecast and US maps have live radar feed too.

We really appreciate everyone who helps spread the word about our service. Here are several of our heroes:

• Google Maps Mania: Make Your Own Google Weather Map
• GIS User: UMapper Rolls Out real-time weather maps with animated radar and more
• Spatial Message to the World: Umapper: an easy way to map local weather [...]
• Free Technology For Teachers: Make Your Own Weather Maps with UMapper
• Directions Magazine: Global Temperatures and Five Day Forecasts on UMapper Weather Maps
• Túnel Carpiano: UMapper añade capa del tiempo

Did we miss anyone? Let us know.

Two great new features have been added to the UMapper weather template. You can now get weather temperatures and five day forecasts for anywhere in the world. Simply zoom on your location of choice and click on the auto-updated temperature layer to get current conditions and forecasts in that area. In addition, you can switch between Fahrenheit and Celsius to update the display. Check it out:

It is extremely easy to create a weather map with UMapper. The entire process consists of two simple steps and takes only few minutes to complete. Take a look at this video tutorial to see how it is done:

In addition to neat weather features, this template supports all of the standard features of UMapper. You can add custom icons, audio overlays, images and all other previously-released features.

As usual, the weather data is provided by folks over at IMap Weather.

To aid rescue efforts and asses the damage, satellite imagery companies GeoEye and Digital Globe stepped in to provide high-resolution imagery of devastated Port-au-Prince and surrounding areas. The original imagery is available from the respective websites. To make the distribution (and sharing) of these maps easier, we’ve converted them into interactive maps.

GeoEye: Port-au-Prince - Jan. 13, 2010
This half-meter resolution satellite image shows Port-au-Prince, Haiti after a 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck the area on Jan. 12, 2010.

Additional imagery from GeoEye:

DigitalGlobe: Port-au-Prince Airport - Jan. 15, 2010

Additional imagery from DigitalGlobe:

We are going to keep this post updated and create additional maps as new imagery is made available. The maps above are free of advertisement, and we encourage you to grab the embed code and use them as you see fit.

If you would like to donate to Haiti earthquake relief fund, you can do it here or here.

Today we added 23 new icons to our default icon set. In addition to standard image icons we’ve added animated blinking bubbles. All icons are available with your account. Take a look at this tutorial to see how to add them to your map:

Get this video from YouTube or create your first map with Custom Icons.

The full list of our icons can be found here, below are some of them:

These icons are a part of the open source Map Icons project and are available for download under the GNU General Public License v3. We strongly encourage you to download the source (Photoshop , Flash), contribute to the project and design some icons for UMapper!

The map we would like to feature this week it is rather sad. The map shows the route of a funeral procession honoring fallen police officer Cst. Eric Czapnik. Here is an excerpt from the article published on OttawaCitizen.com:

Thousands of police officers will march in honour of Ottawa police officer Cst. Ireneusz “Eric” Czapnik. Roads along the route will be closed off for the procession. This map will be updated with photos taken along the procession route.

Road closures are marked in red and procession route is marked in green.