The Canadian Severe Storms Laboratory (CSSL) at Western University runs three public services:
- Weather Intelligence is a web map of surface observations, weather alerts, radar, satellite and model forecasts for Canada and the northern United States.
- Raindrop (
raindrop.cssl.ca) is a REST API for weather station observations and Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) alerts. - Cyclone (
cyclone.cssl.ca) serves gridded data: numerical weather model output, radar volumes, satellite imagery and lightning.
Weather Intelligence is built on the two APIs. These docs cover how to call them and how the pieces fit together.
Quickstart
Fetch station observations and a model forecast. No account needed.
Authentication
Plans, API keys, CSSL account tokens, and what each one unlocks.
Raindrop API
Stations, observations, quality flags and alerts.
Cyclone API
Model runs, data tiles and point forecasts.
What’s available
| Raindrop | Cyclone | |
|---|---|---|
| Data | 4,000+ stations from ECCC, NAV CANADA, provincial and territorial networks, Hydro-Québec, UPEI, HailSTORM and US METAR sites; ECCC weather alerts | HRDPS, RDPS, HRRR, RRFS, NBM, GFS and ICON forecasts; ECCC and NEXRAD radar; GOES-19 infrared; MRMS hail size and lightning |
| Formats | JSON, GeoJSON, CSV | Binary data tiles, JSON, GeoJSON |
| Without an account | Every read endpoint, limited to a 7-day window | The model catalog, RDPS, GOES-19 and MRMS |
All times in both APIs are UTC.
Getting help
For questions about data access or accounts, email nmp@uwo.ca. To report a problem with these docs, open an issue on GitHub.