Architecture

Weather Intelligence

What the weather.cssl.ca portal shows, and where each layer's data comes from.

Weather Intelligence is CSSL’s web map for surface observations, radar, satellite and forecast models. It has three modes.

Observations

The default mode shows current conditions. Station data and alerts refresh every five minutes.

Layer What it shows Source
Stations A WMO station plot, or a single variable: temperature, pressure, dew point or wind gust. Wind barbs are in knots. Raindrop readings
Alerts ECCC watches, warnings, advisories and statements, filterable by type, colour and hazard, including storm-based polygons Raindrop alerts
Satellite GOES-19 infrared, every 10 minutes Cyclone goes-east
Radar Single-site volumes from ECCC and NEXRAD radars: reflectivity, velocity, azimuthal shear, spectrum width and dual-polarization fields. Requires Pro. Cyclone /radar
Lightning NLDN lightning density over the last 5 or 30 minutes Cyclone mrms-nldn-*
Max hail size MRMS Maximum Expected Size of Hail (MESH) Cyclone mrms-mesh-30min

Clicking a station opens its details and recent history, drawn from time series.

Forecasting

Forecasting mode maps model output from Cyclone. You pick a model, a field and a time. By default the map shows the newest run covering that time; you can also lock it to one run.

  • Models: HRDPS, RDPS, RRFS, HRRR, NBM, GFS and ICON. Most need a signed-in account; see plans.
  • Fields: surface fields, thermodynamics (CAPE, CIN, lifted index, lapse rates), kinematics (bulk shear, storm-relative helicity), composite indices (SCP, STP, SHIP, EHI) and probabilities. Each model’s list comes from its /products.
  • Overlays: wind barbs at the surface, on pressure levels, and for shear and storm motion; contours of height, temperature, dew point, θe, wind speed, thickness and pressure; analyzed fronts and pressure centres.
  • Soundings: click the map for a Skew-T, a hodograph and derived indices at that point, built from Cyclone point queries.

Temperatures show in °C by default. You can switch to kelvin.

Historical

Historical mode replays past observations. It has two views: a time series you can scrub through, and daily severe storm summaries. It requires a Pro plan.

Other features

  • Export: save the map as PNG, or a time loop as GIF.
  • Share: copy a link to the current view, or an <iframe> snippet to embed it.
  • Bulk download: export station data as CSV. Requires a Commercial plan.
  • Outlooks: view severe weather outlooks from ECCC, Nadocast and CSSL forecasters. Requires a Commercial plan. CSSL forecasters also draw and publish outlooks here.

Credits

Observations and alerts come from Environment and Climate Change Canada and its partner networks, NAV CANADA, Hydro-Québec, the University of Prince Edward Island, HailSTORM, and the US National Weather Service. Model data comes from ECCC, NOAA and Deutscher Wetterdienst. Basemaps are from Esri.