Navigate the weather information map

Find information on how to navigate through the different features presented in the interactive weather map.

Alerts

 We issue alerts for weather or environmental hazard events that are either occurring, imminent, or forecast to develop.

Get weather forecasts and alerts: Use our mobile app WeatherCAN or visit our Weather Information map. Stay safe during severe weather with guidance from Public Safety Canada.

How to get alert information

You can get alert information for any location in Canada:

• Select an alert-coloured (yellow, orange, red) area on the map.
• A panel window will open with the alert information for that area.
• In the panel window, click to open the alert to get more information.
• Anytime you open an alert in the panel, the map highlights the same alert area.

Figure 1 Example panel window with alert details

Weather alert colours, transparency, solid and dotted lines

You will see 4 different colours on the Weather Information map:

• yellow, orange, red, or grey
• yellow, orange, and red show weather alerts and their risk levels
• grey shows weather statements

Alert colours (yellow, orange, red) are either solid or transparent:

• solid colours show Warnings or Advisories
• transparent colours show Watches

There are solid or dotted lines around weather alert areas:

• solid lines show Warnings or Advisories
• dotted lines show Watches

Weather alerts legend

On the far right of the Weather Information map, you’ll find a “Layers” button. Click it to expand. You will see toggle options for Alerts, Lightning, and Radar, as well as Basemap options.

Figure 2 Layers

Choose the “Alerts” toggle in the Layers box. A drop-down legend will appear with:

• the types of alerts you can see on the map
• guides explaining the Alert levels and their colours, transparency, and solid or dotted outlines

Figure 3 Alert Levels Legend

The weather alert table

You can find the Weather Alerts table below the interactive Weather Information map. 

To find specific regions or alert types: Use the ‘search table’ box in the upper left of the table.

To show all current alerts for each province:  Choose “Expand All” in the upper right.

Figure 4: An example of the alert table

Learn more about alerts

• Learn more about Weather alerts
• Visit our weather Impact Guides
• Learn about Colour-Coded Weather Alerts
• Download the WeatherCAN app and turn on notifications to receive weather alerts in your area
• Be prepared for severe weather
• See our 'No Forecast and Alert Services Map'

Radar

Weather radar is a tool for tracking storms in real time and allows you to see the current location and previous movement of precipitation. The legend on the radar map indicates the intensity of the precipitation. Radar imagery is useful in determining when precipitation will reach a given location.

Return to the Weather Information page.

Precipitation types

Select “Precipitation Types” to see five types of precipitation (Rain, Snow, Freezing rain, Hail, Mix) with three intensities each (Light, Moderate, Heavy).

Precipitation type is available with a maximum range of 240 km for Canadian radars and 230 km for U.S. radars.

Precipitation intensity (rainfall or snowfall)

The radar map displays the intensity of the precipitation by way of varying colours. Our radar imagery has two “modes” – rain or snow mode – and each mode is automatically displayed depending on the season.

Rain mode displays precipitation in mm/h. It is the default from April 1 to November 30.

Snow mode displays precipitation in cm/h. It is the default from December 1 to March 31.

Note, however, that these two modes cannot be displayed simultaneously, and once the choice is made, the coloured imagery only indicates the intensity of precipitation.

Intensity scale

The radar layer intensity can be displayed using an eight or fourteen colour palette. By default, the fourteen colour palette is used, but some users may find the eight colour palette more accessible.

How to access radar information on the map

The “short animation” option displays a series of 11 frames at 6-minute intervals over a one hour period and is the default display of the radar imagery.

The “long animation” displays a series of 16 frames at 12-minute intervals over a three hour period. This option allows a user to look further back in time at the previous motion of the precipitation.

Panel window with radar details

Users can get radar precipitation rate information for areas within the radar network coverage in Canada by selecting an area on the map. This action will bring up a panel window that provides precipitation rate information for that location.

Outages and no network

Areas covered by grey hatching on the map indicate areas of no radar coverage where radar data is not available, or intermittently missing. These include areas where the missing data is due to a radar being out of service. This grey hatched coverage area is dynamic and updated every 6 minutes.

For a map solely indicating areas of no forecast and alert services, visit the “No Forecast and Alert Services Map” page. For information on individual radar outages, visit the “Radar outages and maintenance” page.

Learn more about radar

For technical information about Canadian Weather Radar.

Learn more about Modernizing Canada’s weather-radar network.

For historical radar products (archived images), visit the “Canadian Historical Weather Radar” page.

To better understand the old radar data, read about Canadian historical weather radar.

Lightning layer

If you hear thunder or see a brown circle over your area on the Lightning Map, go to a safe place like an enclosed building with plumbing and wiring, or an all-metal vehicle right away. Stay there for at least 30 minutes after the last sound of thunder. Remember: When Thunder Roars, Go Indoors!

• How to use the Lightning Map
• Map symbols and functions
• How often the map updates
• Learn more about Lightning

How to use the Lightning Map

The Lightning Map is a layer on our interactive Weather Information map that shows where lightning is happening across Canada in real-time. To view lightning strikes, the lightning layer must be turned on.

Figure 3: Interactive Weather Information map showing the Lightning layer

How to turn on the Lightning layer:

1. Find the “Layers” menu in the top right-hand corner of the interactive Weather Information map.
2. Use the toggle to turn on “Lightning” from the menu options. 

Map symbols and functions

Figure 4: Lightning strike legend

Brown circles show where lightning was detected by Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Canadian Lightning Detection Network. Lightning strikes displayed south of the border are provided courtesy of the Vaisala National Lightning Detection Network.

The circles are centred over areas of lightning. The more lightning strikes there are in an area, the larger the circle. As you zoom in, the circles may become smaller as there are fewer strikes in the area displayed on your screen. Zooming in will show a more precise location of each strike or cluster of strikes.

If the lightning layer is turned on and no circles appear, that means the network has not detected cloud-to-ground lightning in the last hour. However, there is a chance that there is lightning in your area that is not reaching the ground.

The lightning map shows lightning strikes in real-time, it is not a forecast.

Figure 5: The red line around the map of Canada indicates the boundary within which lightning strikes are plotted, extending slightly beyond our borders.

How often the map updates

There are 11 images in each hour-long animation – one for every 6 minutes.

Animation images

The lightning layer and radar layer of the interactive Weather Information map both show new data every 6 minutes. However, we get lightning data every minute. The map will show all the lightning strikes that happen between each of the 6-minute radar images.

The last image you see shows the lightning data we received since the last full 6-minutes.

Learn more about Lightning

• Learn more about the Lightning Map
• Lightning Safety
• How we detect lightning
• Learn more about Lightning

General map navigation

Zoom in and out

Users can zoom in and out, and pan the map to see what is occurring in different parts of the country. This action is achieved by selecting the [ + ] or [ – ] on the top left of the map, or scrolling with your mouse wheel on top of the chosen location.

Selecting the home icon will return the map to the national view; the current location icon will centre the map on the user’s location. Also, by selecting the four corners icon this will expand the map to a full screen view.

Base maps

The transportation base map adds major Canadian railways, roads and highways to the default map. This map is open source and details are available on the Canada Base Map Transportation (CBMT) page on the Open Government website.

Caching

A user’s setting preferences, such as transparency, radar intensity, animation speed and length, will be automatically cached (kept) for future visits. Clearing the cache will erase these preferences and return the map to default settings upon browser launch.

Embed on your website

To integrate radar information as well as other weather, climate and water data on your web pages, mobile applications and specialized software, you may use the publicly available products via an API and other web services.

Related links

You might also wish to see:

• Satellite Images and Animation
• Canadian Weather at a Glance (with Jet Stream)
• Canadian Weather Observations and Forecasts