Upgrading Weather Radar Stations to Improve Severe Weather Warnings

Environment Canada has upgraded 32 weather radar stations across the country to spot and issue warnings about severe weather faster and more accurately.

Each tower, almost as tall as a 10-story building, is equipped with a large white sphere that uses microwave energy to scan for signs of bad weather like rain, ice, or snow.

The new towers, costing between $4 million and $5 million each, provide 10 times more data than their predecessors.

With a scanning range of up to 330 kilometers, each tower covers a significant area, and all 32 stations combined cover nearly four million square kilometers of the country, reaching 99% of the population.

This coverage is four times larger than the previous towers, which were unable to see through heavy storms to predict additional rainfall.

Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault believes that these radar systems will “save lives” by enabling meteorologists to detect severe weather quicker and issue warnings to Canadians with more time to seek shelter.

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