Overview

This dataset provides Climate Normals at the in-situ surface observations archived by the Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC), which containes data from the MSC operational observation system as well as from their parteners. The Climate Normals summarize or describe the average climatic conditions of a particular location over a period of 30 years, and they are based on Canadian climate stations with at least 15 years of data in the 30-year period. At the completion of each decade, Environment and Climate Change Canada updates its Climate Normals for as many locations and as many climatic characteristics as possible. MSC is QC the Normals but the QC of the data used in the Normal computation is done by the owers of the sites.

Provider's contact information

Environment and Climate Change Canada

donneesclimatiquesenligne-climatedataonline@ec.gc.ca

Licensing

Open Government Licence - Canada.

Variable name and units:

Maximum Hourly Speed (km/h)

Direction of Maximum Hourly Speed

Mean of hourly wind speed (km/h)

Most frequently occurring wind direction (deg true)

Direction of extreme of hourly wind speed (deg true)

Maximum wind gust (km/h)

Days with wind ≥ 28 knots

Days with wind ≥ 34 knots

Note: The number of available variables differs from station to station and from period to period.

Spatial coverage and resolution:

Canada, point locations.

Temporal coverage and resolution:

The data is presented as 30-year average and has a decadal time step: 1941-1970, 1951-1980, 1961-1990, 1971-2000 and 1981-2010 periods.

The data will continue to be updated every decade.

Information about observations (number, homogeneity)

The number of active stations changed over time. The following figure from Mekis et al. (2018) is presenting the locations of the surface weather stations across Canada with a Needs Index map in the background as of September 2016.

Figure 1. Surface weather stations across Canada, as of September 2016, with a Needs Index map in the background. For further details on station network evolution see Mekis et al. 2018. [Source: Mekis et al., 2018].

Stations over Northern Canda with wind measurements are the ECCC atomatic stations and stations from the Aviation Monitoring Station network (which include automated and staffed weather stations) operated by NAV CANADA and the Department of National Defence (DND). The ECCC Volunteer Climate Stations provide just temperature and precipitation measurements.

The following table presents the number of stations per region in the Northen Canada for the 1981-2010 normals (the number varies with the period of the record).

Methodology

The MSC computation has evolved with the time. For wind, (1) the normal are computed over a 30 year period of consecutive records, starting January 1st and ending December 31st, (2) use 90% hourly completeness (including just days with at least one hourly wind speed), (3) the total is divided by total hours available in the month to get monthly values. Normal values were calculated as the mean for each month from all the individual months in the period of 30 years that sufficiently fulfilled the requirement.

Any extreme elements use all available values no matter the completeness.

Information about the technical and scientific quality

Only Normals for temperature and precipitation (not wind Normals) are computed using WMO standards (they are classified as “A Class” stations).

MSC is QC the Normals but the QC of the data used in the Normal computation is done by the owers of the sites.

Wind speed and direction are greatly affected by proximity to the ground and by the presences of obstacles such as hills, buildings and trees. It tends to increase in speed and veer with height above ground. For meteorological purposes, the standard exposure of anemometer cups is at a height of 10 metres above the ground surface.

Limitations and strengths for application in North Canada

It is a challenge to sustain a cost-effective observing system over Norther Canada because of a large part of the teritory is constituted by remote areas (it is hard for technicians to fly to the site for maintenance, and they often have to wait for the thaw). The special climatic conditions produce a large risk of power and telecommunication outages and it is common for the anemometer to freeze for a period of time if the temperature is too cold or in freezing rain conditions. Concequently, observations in Nortehrn Canada are sparse and records are often incomplete. Therefore, apart from any uncertainty due to site, instrument, or observing program changes, or general representativeness of the observing site with the surrounding region, the normals for most locations will have some uncertainty due to the fact that the observations are not complete for the 30-year period.

The number of available variables differs from station to station and from period to period.

References to documents describing the methodology or/and the dataset

https://climate.weather.gc.ca/doc/Canadian_Climate_Normals_1981_2010_Calculation_Information.pdf

https://climate.weather.gc.ca/doc/Canadian_Climate_Normals_1971_2000_Calculation_Information.pdf

https://climate.weather.gc.ca/doc/Canadian_Climate_Normals_1961_1990_Calculation_Information.pdf

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1OLqRySaAdJSpajkEGmOAHd7zKR2FW72s

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1M2W8t7bG1JmseLEgm90G8O7hAc718RBD

Link to download the data and format of data:

Most recent Normals (1981-2010):

GeoJSON and CSV on CCCS/ECCC: https://climate-change.canada.ca/climate-data/#/climate-normals

CSV via MSC: https://dd.weather.gc.ca/climate/observations/normals/

CSV via ClimateData.ca: https://climatedata.ca/explore/variable/?var=weather-stations

Note: A smaller number of stations qualify for Normals compared to earlier Normals decadal publications.

For all Normals periods:

CSV via CDO/MSC/ECCC: https://climate.weather.gc.ca/climate_normals/index_e.html.

Publications including dataset evaluation or comparison with other data in northern Canada

Information not available.