Near term priority files: Weather services

Extreme Weather Events

Issue

Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC), through its Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC), provides weather and environmental services to Canadians in order to help them make informed decisions to protect their health, safety, and security and has a mandate regarding public safety and emergency management in the context of extreme weather events.

Background

• ECCC delivers forecast and warning services regarding weather, water, ice, climate, solar radiation, and air quality in support of safety, enhanced resilience, economic prosperity and environmental sustainability. ECCC is also the authoritative voice for alerting Canadians to severe weather.
• In case of an extreme weather event, the MSC plays an important role in forecasting water, and air quality conditions, providing alerts and warnings to the public, Emergency Management Organizations (EMOs) and other decision-makers.
• The MSC monitors the weather conditions across Canada and beyond on a 24/7 basis, tracks and predicts storm systems and, issues an average of 1.5 million forecasts including for example, 115,000 public weather forecasts, 17,000 severe weather warnings, 750,000 aviation forecasts, and 40,000 marine, ice and sea-state forecasts annually. These forecasts and warnings are used by various provincial, territorial, and municipal agencies and departments, as well as other organizations, such as EMOs, for decision-making and actions to protect Canadians in case of an emergency.
• When Public Safety Canada (PSC) activates the Government Operations Center (GOC) to manage an event affecting national interest and the weather plays an important role in this event, ECCC provides notification products, shares strategic assets/resources (surge capacity) and provides subject matter experts and liaison officers to the GOC, as required.
• The Department’s weather products are disseminated to the public, EMOs, and other decision makers through a variety of means. ECCC’s severe weather warnings are disseminated through the National Public Alerting System, which is overseen by federal, provincial, and territorial emergency management officials, under the federal leadership of PSC.
• ECCC also works in collaboration with agencies from the United States (US), the International Joint Commission and provincial and territorial partners to provide water level and flow data, including real-time water level data to support international and domestic water management and flood response measures.
• ECCC provides advice for the predicted dispersion of pollutants in both atmosphere and water in the event of forest fires, volcanic ash, oil spills and other hazardous substances spills in water, as well as chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) incidents.
• ECCC also provides specific predictions and services for targeted, weather-sensitive sectors on a cost recovery basis through arrangements with the Department of National Defence, the Canadian Coast Guard, and private entities including NavCan to support the specific decision-making needs of the Canadian military, marine transportation sector, and aviation sector.