Environment Canada’s weather not accurate: Report

A new report written by Environment Canada staff suggests their weather information, which Canadians rely on, may not be all that accurate.

To a farmer in Saskatchewan, however, weather means everything.

“It’s huge,” Southey-area farmer Clayton Gellner said. “It determines everything that you do. It determines quality, it determines what you get.”

Gellner, like most farmers in the province, check Environment Canada’s website to see the weather forecast for the day. If the report is not accurate a day of combining could be quickly changed into a day of sitting around.

According to the report, “the Meteorological Service of Canada is unable to fulfill its goal of ensuring the safety and security of Canadians… in our opinion it is a situation where here and now, MSC is not able to carry out its mandated responsibilities.”

Matthew Bramley from the Climate Change Pembina Institute in Ottawa said the report is sending a strong message.

“The report is a crystal clear statement of the urgent need to improve Canada’s monitoring of climate and weather,” Bramley said.

In a summer full of weather extremes ranging from flooding to tornadoes, warnings are important in Saskatchewan. Getting that information to the public is not all that easy – there is not meteorologist in Saskatchewan.

“Warning preparedness meteorologists in Alberta and Manitoba are well versed in the Saskatchewan issues,” Christine Best, Environment Canada’s Weather Director said from Winnipeg. “All of our forecasters on the desk are prepared to perform at least a basic level of service.”

Gellner finds the reports relatively reliable, but believes being able to pinpoint the weather patterns would help.

“It’s when you get into harvest and spring that your weather is pretty important,” Gellner said. “Wheat, you want to get it off as soon as you can, same as lentils. Some stuff like flax, it doesn’t affect, it can handle it a bit more.”

It could be quite a while before any changes are made. Environment Canada said its improvement plan could take another ten years.