What's Current Archives - Page 2 of 12

Ontario’s Coldest Temperature Revisited: Setting the Record Straight

Written on June 25, 2020.

– By Bryan Smith –

How accurate are Canada’s weather records? The case of Ontario’s all-time record low temperature casts some doubt.

Canadians have free access to one of the most extensive climate databases in the world with data going back to 1840. However, despite efforts to quality-assure this data, suspicious values emerge from time to time among the millions of archived observations. The reasons for the occurrence of inaccurate data are numerous,

Message from the CMOS President: Alternative Congress & Virtual Sessions

Written on May 18, 2020.

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

Dear CMOS Friends and Colleagues,

Over the last two months, we have all had to adjust to the disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and CMOS is no exception. In March, we monitored the rapidly evolving COVID-19 situation on a daily basis, and on April 3, we decided to cancel the 54th Congress, which was scheduled for May 24-28 in Ottawa. This decision was based on the recommendations of local, provincial, and federal governments and public health agencies regarding actions needed to slow the spread of COVID-19 and protect our communities.

skyscraper view of traffic lights and Vancouver tower

Air Pollution in the Time of COVID-19

Written on May 6, 2020.

– By D.G. Steyn, Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of British Columbia, Vancouver, B.C., and Kyle Howe, Air Quality and Climate Change, Metro Vancouver Regional District, Burnaby, B.C. –

The COVID-19 pandemic is disrupting many aspects of society globally, nationally and locally. The most direct effect is the human health tragedy of increased morbidity and mortality caused by the disease. Beyond that, the legislated curtailment of human movement to slow the spread of the virus has resulted in economies being placed in what has been called a “medically induced coma”. Closely associated with the sharp slowdown in economic activity has been the reduction in fossil fuel consumption from most source sectors.

Visibility Forecast in Wildfire Smoke: An August 2018 Case Study

Written on April 27, 2020.

– By Yimei Li, Canadian Meteorological Aviation Centre, Environment and Climate Change Canada –

In recent years, wildfire smoke has become an increasingly alarming natural disaster in Western Canada. In 2017 and 2018, the British Columbia provincial government declared a state of emergency for two consecutive summers in response to the wildfire situation (1). These were the third and fourth declarations in history and the previous ones were in 1996 and 2003.

Blue Sky Blues or the Three Degrees of Aircraft Pollution

Written on April 10, 2020.

– By Phil Chadwick –

The title of this 2012 painting below, numbered 1260 in my artistic journey, is “Three Degrees”. That title might sound cryptic. Let me explain.

All air traffic was grounded over North America for three or four days after the terror attacks of 9/11 on September 11th, 2001. A couple of curious meteorologists investigated the impact of grounding those aircraft. They discovered that the skies were much clearer and that temperatures responded correspondingly.

Lighthouse at night with dark clouds and lightning bolt

Message from the CMOS President: Resilience and Possibility in Challenging Times

Written on March 30, 2020.

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

Dear CMOS Friends and Colleagues,

As we go ‘to press’ with this issue of the CMOS Bulletin, Canada and the world are in the midst of major disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Seasonal Outlook for the spring 2020 (MAM) based on the official CanSIPS forecast issued on the 28th Feb. 2020

Written on March 22, 2020.

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

Seasonal Outlook for Spring 2020 (March, April, May) in Canada is for elevated temperatures in eastern Canada and below normal temperatures in the west, with equal chances for precipitation for most of the country.

Man on a research vessel directing a part of the vessel

Modular Ocean Research Infrastructure (MORI): A Flexible, Scalable and Affordable Approach to Ocean-going Research in Canada and Worldwide

Written on March 14, 2020.

– By Dr. Doug Wallace (Scientific Director, MEOPAR) and Doug Bancroft (President and CEO, Canadian Scientific Submersible Facility)–

Research vessels (RVs) remain critical infrastructure for many classes of ocean-related research. Robots and autonomous vehicles are used increasingly for monitoring and some process-oriented research when appropriate sensors are available. However, there are also a growing number of questions related to ocean and seafloor resources, as well as complex physical, chemical, biological and atmospheric processes critical to climate change and biodiversity, which require that multidisciplinary teams of researchers can access the ocean with highly sophisticated instrumentation, from vessels.

Observing Snow from the Sky: Breakthroughs in mapping tundra snow with drones

Written on February 26, 2020.

– By Branden Walker and Philip Marsh, Cold Regions Research Centre, Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Ontario –

Snow is not evenly distributed across Arctic tundra landscapes. Strong winter winds and low-lying vegetation allow snow to easily be eroded, transported and deposited across the open landscape resulting in a heterogenous distribution of snow depth, snow density, and snow water equivalent (SWE). Understanding the distribution of snow in these environments is of upmost importance