Navigating interactive weather information

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

Alerts

Alerts are issued by Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC) for weather or environmental hazard events that are either occurring, imminent, or forecast to develop.

Access public weather alerts on the Weather Information page.

How to access alert information

Users can get alert information for any location in Canada by selecting the alert-indicated area on the map. This action will open a window that provides alert information for that location. Select the respective alert banner in the pop-up window to expand the alert and get more information about that particular alert. When an alert banner is expanded in the panel, the event is highlighted on the map.

Pop-up window with alert details

The weather alert table

Users can access this table by scrolling to it below the interactive map or by selecting “alert table is available” in the statement above the map.

Using the search table box in the upper left of the table will allow you to search the table for specific regions or alert types. By selecting “Expand All” in the upper right, all current alerts for each province will be displayed in the table.

Types of alerts

The type of alert used depends on the severity and timing of the event:

These alerts are updated regularly so that you can stay on top of a developing situation and take appropriate action.

Learn more about alerts

• Learn more about the criteria for public 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

For technical details on the radar, please visit the 'About Canadian weather radar' page.

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.

Go to the Weather Information page.

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.

Pop-up 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 pop-up window that provides precipitation rate information for that location.

Modes: Rain or snow

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.

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 more 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 lightning icon 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

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 the Lightning Map, you need to turn on the Lightning layer on the interactive Weather Information map.

Turn on the Lightning layer:

1. Go to the interactive Weather Information map on weather.gc.ca
2. Find the “Layers” menu: look in the top right-hand corner of the interactive Weather Information map
3. Turn on the Lightning layer: choose “Lightning” from the Layers menu options: Alerts, Lightning, Radar

Map symbols and functions

See lightning in real-time. You might see the yellow lightning bolt icon alone or in groups of several lightning bolts, depending on the amount of lightning found. The icon shows on the map over the area where lightning is being detected. It represents lightning strikes from the last 6 minutes. It is not a forecast.

The Navigation Control icons down the left side of the interactive Weather Information map help you manipulate the map. Click the question mark icon at the bottom for a detailed description of the Navigation Controls.

Lightning Icons

The lightning icons show where lightning was found 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 icons are centred over the location of the strike. When multiple icons are clustered over one location, that means there are multiple strikes happening in that location. If the lightning layer is turned on and no lightning bolts appear, that means the network has not seen 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 icons are not a forecast.

How often the map updates

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

Animation images

The lightning layer and radar layer of the interactive weather map both show new information 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

• What you need to know about the Lightning Map
• Learn about Lightning Safety
• 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.

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.

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