When it comes to checking weather forecasts on your PC there are a lot of possible alternatives at your fingertips, from dedicated websites to all sorts of software apps. But we've still got an ace up our collective sleeve: you can also use Google Maps to see what the weather will be like in the next few days anywhere in the world. Want to know how?

Simply load Google Maps on your favorite browser and click on the My Maps tab. Then, in the Featured Content list, enable the Weather Channel option. Your map will be immediately changed to a weather map with an array of icons to show weather conditions and temperature around the globe. If you click on any of those icons, you'll get a fully detailed weather report about that given location, including temperature, wind speed, humidity and the UV index.

The Google Maps Weather Channel can be customized to display points of interest and overlay layers. Also, you can choose to have temperature displayed in ºC or ºF. So next time you need to check weather forecast remember that Google may have the right answer - again.