I came home from work tonight to find my Wii glowing its pleasant neon blue. I powered it up and found a message alerting me that Nintendo had launched the Wii Forecast channel. I did the update, loaded it up for the first time, and thought, “Huh. That’s kinda cool.” After a little set-up, I found current conditions, local forecast for tomorrow, a five-day forecast, and even a UV index. Then I hit the “Globe” option, and here’s where it gets brilliant.

You use the “plus” and “minus” buttons on the Wiimote to zoom way in and way out on a 3D globe of the earth. Pressing left and right on the D-pad changes overlays and cycles you through today’s highs, current weather, tomorrow’s weather, tomorrow’s highs. Pushing up and down on the D-pad adjusts the curvature of the earth to the point where you can see a nice star field in the background, which is also present at the more extreme levels of being zoomed out. Click and hold the A button and as you move the Wiimote left and right, up and down, the globe spins. It’s easy, it’s intuitive, and it’s something the weather has never really been before: fun. I seriously spent an hour just messing with it and was amazed by how much fun I was having.

In January, Nintendo is scheduled to also launch a News channel and the free Opera web browser which will let you surf with the Wiimote. I don’t think either of these will replace sitting at a computer, but considering what they’ve achieved with the Forecast channel, I’m definitely looking forward to these future upgrades.

Viva la Wii.