Canadian Radar

[Alex Goldstein]

Just out of curiosity, when chasing up north, how do you all get radar? I haven't been able to find any radar in Canada that is even remotely high definition.

 

[Robert Edmonds]

I know wxworx has data plans that have Canadian radar. I don't remember how much of Canada is covered, and I don't know where else to find it since I don't go that far North usually. However, I bet some others have a better idea than I do.

 

[Dennis Sherrod]

Hey Alex,
I don't lnow how much this will help, but try this link and see if this may help.

http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/radar/index_e.html

 

[Dennis Sherrod]

One more link that may help you find some info.

http://usasearch.gov/search?affiliate=nws.noaa.gov&v:project=firstgov&query=canada

 

[Adam Ball]

The first link from Dennis is the only place I've ever seen Canadian radar on the web. It may not be the greatest, but it sure beats what they had 5-8 years ago. Back then there were about 5 different colors for reflectivty, and they were the weirdest colors. Something like pink for weak returns then yellow and light blue. It just hurt your eyes to look at it.

If you stay near the border you can usually use the NWS radars (however you get that, web, software, etc...) pretty well.

-adam

 

[Mike Smith]

We can sell it to you.

 

[Bob Schafer]

I have no clue where I got them, I've never used them, and they aren't all radar, but here are a couple other "Canada bookmarks" I saved a few years ago :

http://www.flightplanning.navcanada...nconnu&Page=forecast-observation&TypeDoc=html
http://www.saskatoonscanner.com/storms/

 

[Tom Stefanac]

Accuweather is another source for Canadian radar but the resolution is not much different from what is available via the government website.

http://www.accuweather.com/canada-radar-local-index.asp?partner=accuweather&postalcode=

In short there is no high resolution radar data available for free.

Tom

 

[Jayson Mills]

I use the weather network or Enviorment Canada's websites

 

[davecarlsen]

Yeah, EC owns all the RADARs. So anything you get off of Accuweather or TWN or anywhere else is just re-packaged. I hope better stuff comes out sooner rather than later--I mean, there's a lot RADAR more info available than what's out there on the web!

 

[Patrick Boomer]

In Alberta's hail alley, we are fortunate to have another radar operated by Weather Modification Inc for their hail suppression program here. It shows storm heights, tracks and speed, also offering good coverage of the foothills in the gap between the radars near Calgary and Edmonton. Also shows the tracks of the planes as they are out on their seeding runs.

 

[Aaron Kennedy]

Heh...
http://weathermod.com/assets/index.php

Anyone want to purchase a C-Band radar?

 

[John Wetter]

With the lock on the data, I always just go here:
http://www.weatheroffice.gc.ca/radar/index_e.html
and select the site I want.

 

[Marc Remillard]

I created this google earth plugin:
http://www.quebecvortex.com/photos/Stuff/QcV_Radars_V1.1.kmz

Right now it contains QC and ON only, I can add some more if you want.

screenshots:
http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/4057/ss2ww5.jpg
http://img169.imageshack.us/img169/810/ss1mf0.jpg

 

[John Erwin]

I created this google earth plugin:
http://www.quebecvortex.com/photos/Stuff/QcV_Radars_V1.1.kmz

Right now it contains QC and ON only, I can add some more if you want.

Nice work Marc! I've been working on this myself, although in my case I was using client-side scripts to remove the background map and graphics. The PHP solution seems a bit more elegant though!

I think this approach gives you a product somewhat better than what you get from the EC website, although the radar is still low-res. Maybe someday they'll open up the data a bit...