Weather Weenies We Are!

Canadians love to talk about the weather, especially those of us in agriculture. It controls our lives more than any other sector of the economy. You can cut a tree, be a tourist, build a widget, or shop in any weather, but not so in farming. Since our lives are so dependent on the weather, let’s look at some practical aspects of finding the weather information we need.

High-Speed Access More Available

The graphical nature of websites often makes dial up too slow and almost impossible to use for “web surfing” without access to high-speed internet. I am encouraged that high-speed access is becoming more available in the rural areas and at a more reasonable cost. If you have been discouraged in the past by lack of access to high-speed in your area, it might be time to revisit this, as a lot has changed in the last year.

My Favourite Weather Sites

Weather information is everywhere, but where is the stuff we really need. We are interested in forecasts, weather warnings, satellite/radar imagery, and often historical data (ie how much rainfall did we get last week).

Most internet sources of Ontario weather utilize information from Environment Canada (weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/canada_e.html), which also makes various weather products available to the general public. I use these sites, but prefer other resources and others to find the information I am interested in. Other resources are better for radar/satellite imagery.

Farmzone.com

One of the best sources of weather data for Canadian agriculture is available through the Weather Network (link below. They have a site called Farmzone.Com (link below) that provides excellent information for us.

Lets work our way through this site to see what it can provide us with, weather wise. From the Farmzone home page at, click on “Southern Ontario” (Figure 1). Then at the next screen click on the specific area you are interested in - example London (Figure 2).

Figure 1 - Southern Ontario

Figure 2 - London

You are then presented with the local forecast and can select from various options as detailed in Figure 3 (note the cursor arrow). This screen also shows you the “Planning Forecast For Tomorrow” information highlighted in Figure 4. You can also access the “Long Term Forecast” (Figure 5), “Historical Data” (Figure 6), “Regional” and “Weather Map” resources.

Figure 3 - Local Forecast & Current Conditions 

Figure 4 - Almanac & Planning Forecast For Tomorrow

Figure 5 - Long Term Weather Forecast

From the “Historical Data” (Figure 6) which you access via the “Historic” selection beside the “Long Term” forecast, you can find information for any specific day in the past (note #1), or the precipitation and heat recorded over a number of days (note #2). One caution is that there is no warning if daily information is missing from the period within the range you have chosen. I have spoken to Farmzone and they are hoping to rectify this problem by fall.

Figure 6 - Historical Data

Radar & Satellite Images

Radar and Satellite images enables us to see what weather is coming our way. I prefer to use The Weather Channel or Intellicast images (see links below).

The best option is to go to the respective home page, type in a US location close to you, and then select the radar or satellite images. Using Port Huron MI, Erie PA, Niagara Falls NY or Watertown NY gets almost full coverage of Ontario. These sites give a clear view of where the rainfall and cloud cover is and are very useful in determining for instance, if you can get that last 20 acres planted before it rains. Website links below.

Remember, you can add any of these weather pages to your “favourites” listing in your web browser allowing you to go directly to these pages at any time.

Related Links

• The Weather Network
• Farmzone
• The Weather Channel
• Intellicast
• Weather Channel - Satellite of Northeastern NA
• North East Radar at 2100 miles
• Weather Network - Local Radar of Port Huron, MI
• Weather Network - Local Radar of Erie, PA