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The Challenge of Maintaining Fraser River Sockeye Salmon in a Warming World

Written on October 23, 2020.

– By David Levy –

This article first appeared in The Province on September 13, 2020.

Opinion: The DFO has done the right thing this year by closing Fraser sockeye fisheries.

The return of only 283,000 Fraser River sockeye in 2020, the lowest number recorded, has again triggered expressions of concern for these iconic salmon, debate as to what is causing their demise and recognition of the critical need for effective conservation strategies.

Message from the CMOS President: Planning for a Virtual Victoria Congress of 2021

Written on October 22, 2020.

– By Marek Stastna, CMOS President, and Professor in the Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Waterloo –

After a glorious stretch of humidity free summer weather, my southern Ontario summer literally ended with a bang. At around 5 a.m. on Sept. 7, lightning struck so close to my house that there was no count to be had between the lightning and thunder.

Proposed Nomenclature for Fire-induced Vortices

Written on September 23, 2020.

– By Patrick McCarthy and Leanne Cormier –

Extreme fire behaviour can manifest itself in many ways, violent tornado-like vortices being one example. On April 19, 2000, a large out-of-control fire at a major flax straw storage facility in southern Manitoba produced numerous vortices. One vortex emerged out of the inferno, tossing a pickup truck.

An Interview with Oceanographer Susan Allen about the Salish Sea

Written on September 12, 2020.

Marek: Hello, I am speaking with Professor Susan Allen, from the University of British Columbia’s Department of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Science about one of her many research interests: the Salish Sea. What is the Salish sea? Can you tell me a bit about it?

Susan: The Salish Sea, I believe, is not actually an official geographic term and therefore it does not have an official definition. For example, I recently saw a paper where the Salish Sea only included Puget Sound and a little bit of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, which is the smallest Salish Sea I’ve seen.

A Note on ECCC Radar Snowfall Estimates and Radar Data

Written on July 28, 2020.

Diar Hassan (Wood PLC, Ottawa ON), George Isaac (Weather Impacts Consulting Inc., Barrie ON), Peter Taylor (York University, Toronto ON), Daniel Michelson (Environment and Climate Change Canada – ECCC), and Norman Donaldson (ECCC).

It often snows in Newfoundland but on 17 January 2020, it was a little extreme (Figure 1). METAR reports from St John’s airport, CYYT, indicated 35 cm of snow fell between 1200-1800 UTC and another 19 cm in the next 6 hours. These snowfall depth measurements are consistent with many others in the area.

Micrometeorological Variables and Atmospheric Dispersion Modeling in Two Climate Regions of Quebec

Written on July 27, 2020.

– By Richard Leduc, Ph.D., AirMet Science Inc., and Jean-François Brière, Ministère de l’Environnement et de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques

The US-EPA (2019a) AERMOD dispersion model is widely used to assess the concentration of contaminants in ambient air as a result of emissions from a source. To this end, AERMOD requires micrometeorological variables characterizing turbulence (u*, w*, L, zic, zim); they are calculated by the AERMET module and obtained using local surface and upper air data (wind, temperature and cloud opacity),

Kimberly Strong Hands Over CMOS Presidency to Marek Stastna

Written on July 24, 2020.

Dear CMOS Friends and Colleagues,

June marks the end of my year as CMOS President. It has been an honour to serve in this role, which has been both eventful and rewarding, particularly over the last several months. I sincerely thank CMOS staff, Council, Executive, Centre Chairs, and Committee Chairs and members, for their support and for all their contributions to CMOS over the past year.

2020 Arctic Summer Seasonal Climate Outlook for Sea-Ice

Written on July 5, 2020.

– By contributors from Environment and Climate Change Canada, the University of Québec at Montréal, the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, the Hydrometeorological Centre of Russia, The Norwegian Meteorological Institute, Finnish Meteorological Institute, World Meteorological Organization, Climate Prediction Center, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration –

Arctic Climate Forum Consensus Statement (Continued)

Highlights

Warmer than normal surface air temperatures over Eurasia and the Arctic Ocean contributed to below to near normal ice conditions during the 2019-2020 winter across the entire Arctic.

2020 Arctic Summer Seasonal Climate Outlook for Temperature and Precipitation

Written on June 30, 2020.

– By contributors from Environment and Climate Change Canada, the Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute, the Hydrometeorological Centre of Russia, The Norwegian Meteorological Institute, Finnish Meteorological Institute, World Meteorological Organization, Climate Prediction Center, and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration –

Arctic Climate Forum Consensus Statement

And Summary of the 2020 Arctic Winter Season

CONTEXT

Arctic temperatures continue to warm at more than twice the global mean. Annual surface air temperatures over the last 4 years (2016–2019) in the Arctic (60°–85°N) have been the highest in the time series of observations for 1936-2019.