Canadian Weather Community Forums

I thought I'd start this thread to see what people would like to see changed on the EC Website or what they don't like about the site. Personally I'd like to see close up radar shots, storm reports and a site that has some more information for those truely into the weather, rather then for people that wanna see what the weather will be for the weekend.

I don't wanna make this a bash EC thread either, because they do help. Name some things you like about their site also.

I know funding is an issue too, but with the amount of different weather events Canada gets I would like to see some more warnings and reports for the events we do get.

I can`t see much impoving to what they have now. EC like most weather agencies have to go for the majority and keep your average guy on the street happy. Weather geeks like us are only a tiny percentage of the EC site users. Sure fact "John Jones" is not interested in seeing vorticity radar and all the fancy stuff. I`m gussing unlike their US counterparts, they have a much more limited budget and have to use the budget much more carefully.

We`re lucky in that those that with close to the US border can enjoy the nexrad overspill, with all it`s fancy gimmicks.

Think yourself lucky anyway, when I lived in the UK, weather data was extremely limited, mostly behind closed doors for the armed forces, aviation, shipping etc. What the public got and still gets is pathetic. Radar imagery not much bigger than a packet of cigarrettes and that`s for the whole country!! Lol one pixel covered almost an entire county!

Being a weather geek/weenie, absolutely I would like to see more.

Yup, just got to love that nexrad.

I think in the future you may see some upgrades in the system, at least with warnings.
It appears to me at least, they are trying to model our warning systems after the emergency broadcast system in the US.
They are working on weather warnings as well as regional and area warnings in a scope well beyond weather.
In the next year or so you will probably get warnings such a flood, fire, smoke bio and many others, being area / local specific.

Improved radar would certainly be nice though. But as Bob said, it's a budget thing and all it takes is one EC austerity program to blow it right out of the water.
Too bad though, I like all the fancy gimmicks

I think EC's site is very good, particularly the "Historical Weather" data archive - there's a wealth of information in there. I agree, the radar could be upgraded, but it really doesn't matter to me anyway since I'm only about 25 km from the border, and use Nexrad. Overall though, I like EC's site.

I don't think EC has enough funding to upgrade the website into a high-tech web adventure like the NWS site. I also believe there are legal issues with posting such things as certain weather data or weather archives. I had to pay EC $45 to get info on the 05/31/85 outbreak.

I'd love to see zoom-in radar with rotation scans though!

I love the historical climate data site. Tons of data. Very useful. I also like the daily 10-day ensemble temperature departure map. Posters on American weather forums (eg. Eastern US weather) use this map in their posts during the winter time.

Overall, a very good site.

I have to say I am really impressed with Environment Canada! I know that they are under a tight budget and yet do a great job. The men and women who work there are great weather advocates, use our own Dave Carlsen as an example.

As everyone else has mentioned they would love to see additional RADAR, satellite, and model output for Canada, as do I. A storm prediction centre, and a national warning system would be nice but it all costs money. I still am of the belief that Canada's tornado alleys (Southern Ontario, Southern Manitoba, Southern Saskatchewan, Along the Alberta Foothills) should have tornado sirens. It is simply a safety issue...most people who see a tornado didn't even know thunderstorms were forecast that day. Sirens in Southern Canada are necessary as a safety concern, at least people can get some advanced warning!

If EC had a huge budget like NOAA we would be a world leader in meteorology, but even with what we have I shouldn't hear any complaining. Just remember the folks in the UK or other parts of the world as Bob had mentioned, think of them before you start your complaining.

Keep up the great work EC!

Great comments everyone. Like I said I did want this to be a bashing thread because EC does do a great job. Just wanted to hear some of the things you'd like to see if the options were there.

You also brought up a great point about the tornado sirens. Now is that EC's job or is that more of an area's officials' job to have theses installed????

Well, I thought it was about time to add my 2 cents' worth on this thread. (Okay, I'm traveling right now and didn't see it until just this minute. :) )
Anyhow, I like the premise of the thread, and all the comments are very valid. As weather nuts, of course we'd like to see more on there. We have to keep in mind, though, that the average Canadian isn't a weather nut--they just want to know if their picnic this weekend will be rained out. In that vein, and now I'm going to venture into my dreamworld, maybe a good compromise would be having 2 sites--1 for the picnickers, and one for the weather weenies.

But whoever said it was right--it all comes down to funding. I can't really add more about that.

That being said, I have to commend whoever did the historical weather site. (I don't know who it was.) They put oodles of work into it and from it you can extract oodles of data. From what I can tell, it's widely used both in EC and outside.

The RADAR information upgrade is something I've been on the developers about for years, both as an EC employee and as a private citizen. The response I keep getting is (and I'm paraphrasing) "90% of the general public wouldn't understand 90% of the RADAR products we have, so why bother," which I thought was a pretty bad reason for not showing all the stuff paid for by our tax dollars.

The satellite imagery could, similarly, be a lot better. I have **no** idea why it's not--and the kicker is, EC doesn't own the data--that information is owned and freely distributed by NOAA. So that one's a melon-scratcher.

I'm not sure that EC will be issuing other warnings soon (fire, flod, biological, and so on) although I think it would be a great idea to merge all types of warnings onto one website. Floods are covered by the provinces and other things are covered by other jurisdictions--but I don't see why collaborative efforts wouldn't work, like the smog warnings issued out of Ontario and Quebec. But then again, I stand to be corrected.

Storm/severe weather reports are a tricky issue, because there are some privacy concerns in there. I'm not sure how that one would come out, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Just yet, anyhow.

Now onto sirens. Some towns do have sirens, and lots don't. If I recall correctly, it's the responsibility of the RM (or MD or county of whatever) to both procure and activate a siren. For instance, my mom's hometown of Wynyard, SK has a siren that they give a short burst from every evening at (I think) 8 PM. And if something is coming they would likely run the siren. But it's the exception, not the rule, unfortunately.

I'd like to thank you all for your comments and wish lists, and I'd encourage them to keep coming. I'll be certain to pass a list of "wants" to those in charge of updating the site, although to be honest, I don't know how much response I'll get.

In the meantime, I have been tinkering with changing around Weather Central and trying to put on there what I would like as a weather weenie--I was approached a couple of months ago by one of my colleagues, and asked to put together what I would like EC's weather site to look like. And with the information availale to me online, this is what I came up with.

http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/enviro...g/weather/

Now of course, since I'm a Winipegger and it's my site, it has a Winnipeg focus. But the idea would be that a server-side program would sense your ISP and thus your approximate location and then send you to your "local" page, which would feature your local forecast, RADAR, satellite imagery, lightning data and warnings for your region. Please play around on the site (there are some neat features I think, such as the RADAR part of the site and the warnings/observations part). Let me know what you think and give me suggestions for what you would like to see. Who knows, it may just end up being implemented on Weatheroffice. Okay, I'm dreaming, but dare to dream, right?

Dave, that is a great site. Thanks for sharing! I like the storm report option, because I never know who to call to report severe weather. I'm an EWT member for TWN, I'm not sure if they relay my reports to EC though. We did have a funnel cloud last year hanging over the house and no tornado warning. It was small, lasted just a couple of minutes but I was scrambling through the phone book for EC's number in Downsview. I ended up calling some EC employee that went straight to an answering machine, it wasn't a storm report line.