Google announced on Thursday on its official blog that it has added a weather layer to the Google Maps tool. The weather layer will allow users to see the weather conditions and temperatures around the globe overlaid on its maps.

The company gives users directions on how to use the new feature on its blog:

To add the weather layer, hover over the widget in the upper right corner of Google Maps and select the weather layer from the list of options. When zoomed out, you'll see a map with current weather conditions from weather.com for various locations, with icons to denote sun, clouds, rain and so on.

Enabling the weather layer will give users an instant weather report from anywhere in the world. Clicking on the weather icon in a city will give detailed data like current humidity and wind conditions as well as a forecast for the next four days.

Google said it uses weather information from Weather.com to update its Weather Layer and that it has partnered with the U.S Naval Research Lab to provide cloud coverage data.

Users will find it hard to see weather in several cities unless they clikc the "minus" (zoom out) button several times.

Google isn't the only search engine with a weather application. Microsoft's Bing search engine had a weather application since it released the WeatherBug application in June 2010.