CNN Adds Imagery to Primary Maps; Still Lacks Real-Time Weather

John King, the newsman turned GIS expert for CNN during the U.S. presidential primaries, has been adding functionality to his Google election coverage maps. In Tuesday’s Ohio primary specifically, King and anchor Wolf Blitzer were reporting on a lawsuit filed by Barack Obama to keep polling locations open because of the ice storm hitting the state. As King zoomed into Cuyahoga County to highlight the areas hit by the ice storm he was left with a huge hole in his coverage. Where’s the ice, snow? Lacking an integrated live weather feed, King was simply showing a static satellite image of downtown Cleveland. So, while imagery was added to the election coverage, it seems like King wanted even more to describe the situation.

I like what The Weather Channel has done with the integration of live weather and Microsoft Virtual Earth. Will live weather be next in election coverage? It’s coincidental that The Weather Channel is running a series called "When Weather Changed History." In the case of the primaries, weather may very well have been a factor in the primaries. Just watch what happens in November.