Phil Jarrett: Head of the Engineering Climate Services Unit, MSC
“The best part of my work is helping to create products and tools that are used by Canadians each day.”
Meet Phil Jarrett.
Phil Jarrett is the Head of the Engineering Climate Services Unit for the Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC). Working under the Monitoring Strategies and Data Services directorate, Phil and his team provide vital information to clients for the development of infrastructure codes and standards.
“Our team produces data for the National Building Code of Canada and for various Canadian Standards Association (CSA) standards used to design towers and antennas, transmission lines, bridges, and wind turbines,” says Phil. “This information is used daily across the country to ensure that the built environment is safe, energy efficient, and resilient.”
Phil has worked with Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) for 33 years, and has held a number of positions throughout his career. Prior to his current role, Phil worked as an operational forecaster in Vancouver and Kelowna and was the manager of the National RADAR project in the early 2000s. Starting in 1997, the National Radar Project was the largest expansion of the entire radar network, increasing radar coverage to reach over 98% of the Canadian population. In 2017, the Radar Renewal Project was initiated to upgrade all Doppler radars with new S-Band dual-polarized equipment providing longer-range coverage and better precipitation type detection.
Phil has made many impactful memories in his time with ECCC, both in the office and in the field. During his time as a fire weather forecaster, he remembers standing at the base of a flaming hillside with fire crews while seconded to the BC Forest Service in the Chilcotin-Cariboo region.
Phil recently had the opportunity to attend a conference in Iceland, where he visited Hallormsstaðarháls, located in the eastern mountains. Here, Phil traveled with a maintenance crew through narrow valleys and steep mountains near Fjarðabyggð to study the effects of heavy ice loading on transmission lines.