Weather Archives - CMOS BULLETIN SCMO

Searching towards creating a sustainable integrated mesonet for the Canadian Prairie Provinces

Written on January 13, 2020.

– By Jeannine-Marie St-Jacques¹, Aston Chipanshi², Trevor Hadwen², Allan Friesen¹, and David Sauchyn³ –

Due to the continental nature of the Canadian Prairie Provinces, their weather and climate are characterized by extremes. With this reality, the Prairie Provinces should benefit from high resolution weather monitoring from an integrated weather mesonet. A mesonet consists of any number of automated weather stations with an average spacing of 1 to 50 kilometers. This station spacing is much denser

Canada’s Top Ten Weather Stories of 2019

Written on January 2, 2020.

– By David Phillips, Environment and Climate Change Canada (article source: https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/top-ten-weather-stories/2019.html) –

Canadians are experiencing more and more extreme weather, from intense and lengthy heat waves, to suffocating smoke and haze from wildfires, to extreme flooding. Canadian scientists have made a clear link between climate change and extreme weather events. They tell us that while such events can and do occur naturally, much of what we are seeing is driven by human-induced climate change.

Seasonal Outlook for the winter 2019/2020 (DJF) based on the official CanSIPS forecast issued on the 30th Nov. 2019

Written on December 9, 2019.

– By M. Markovic, B. Merryfield, M. Alarie, Environment and Climate Change Canada –

Seasonal Outlook for winter 2019/20 (December, January, February) in Canada is for elevated temperatures in southern and eastern Canada and above normal precipitation for much of the country.

Arctic Regional Climate Centre Consensus Statement: TEMPERATURE

Written on December 4, 2019.

– By Gabrielle Gascon¹, Katherine Wilson¹, Marko Markovic^1*, Adrienne Tivy¹, Bill Appleby¹, Vasily Smolyanitsky², Valentina Khan³, Helge Tangen⁴, Eivind Stoylen⁴, Lene Ostvand⁴, Johanna Ekman⁵, Arun Kumar⁶ and Shanna Combley⁶ –

2019 Arctic Summer Seasonal Summary and 2019-2020 Arctic Winter Seasonal Outlook for Temperature

Arctic temperatures continue to warm at more than twice the global mean. Annual surface air temperatures over the last 4 years (2014-2018) in the Arctic have been the highest on record since 1900.

Message from the CMOS President: Communication, Partnership and Change

Written on November 14, 2019.

– By Kimberly Strong, CMOS President and Professor & Chair, Department of Physics, University of Toronto –

At this time of year, as we enjoy the beautiful fall colours and brace for winter, thoughts of CMOS members also turn to spring as we plan ahead for our annual Congress. The 54th CMOS Congress will be held in Ottawa from May 24 to 28, 2020 with a focus on “Building Societal Resilience to Changing Weather, Climate, Oceans and Environment”. The Local Arrangements Committee, chaired by Bruce Angle, and the Science Programme Committee, co-chaired by Leonard Barrie and Gordon McBean, are hard at work putting together an excellent programme

Radar Events Initiative

Written on November 12, 2019.

– By Phil Chadwick, Meteorologist and Eco-Artist –

Tenacity may be a good thing especially if it is well intentioned – the objective analysis of the weather services provided by Environment Canada. The following was written in 2004 to address some perceived deficiencies. The quality and quantity of radar were expanding and there were many imperative applications for that burgeoning information. The following were just a few of those and I had many more in the queue ready for implementation.

Now 15 years later I have not yet given up. A new generation of S-Band radars are being deployed across Canada offering much superior data that needs to be fully utilized as this 2004 research proposed.

The Weather Machine: A Journey Inside The Forecast

Written on November 1, 2019.

– Review by Bob Jones, CMOS Archivist –

By Andrew Blum, Published by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, hardcover, 224 pages, ISBN 978-1-4434-3859-9, $32.00 (CAD).

Quite by accident I stumbled upon this book in the express collection of the Ottawa Public Library. Seeing it was about weather forecasting, I could not resist it. After reading the short book, I am amazed it was not sent to the CMOS Office like so many other books offered for review in the Bulletin. The Weather Machine is at the core of what meteorologists past and present do, and should be a pre-requisite for any undergrad or grad course in meteorology.

Comparison of wind forecasts and observations at Lake Saint-Charles, Quebec: Results from 2018

Written on October 27, 2019.

– By Richard Leduc, AirMet Science Inc –

In a recent CMOS Bulletin (Vol 46, No 4), the results of the comparison between the wind forecasts from the high resolution deterministic prediction system (SHRPD, 2.5 km, EAST sub-domain) which served as inputs to the CALMET diagnostic model and observations of the Lac St-Charles meteorological tower were presented for 273 days in 2017. The main results for 331 days of 2018 are discussed in this short article.

Replacement of the Canadian Weather Radar Network

Written on October 7, 2019.

– by Sylvain Laramée, Qian Li, Pat Wong, Sylvain Savard, Peter Leibiuk, Steven Brady, Rick Czepita, Hamid Nasr, Todd Benko, Michael Romaniuk, Mark Abt and Ingrid Wong –

Canadian Weather Radar Replacement Program, Meteorological Service of Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada

Meteorologists use many tools to forecast Canada’s weather. Among which, radar is a primary tool that provides 3D observations of the atmosphere with high temporal and spatial resolution to assist in forecasting short-term severe weather events such as thunderstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, ice storms and blizzards.