13:56 on 2011/02/27 Reply  

• Stefan 14:15 on 2011/02/27 Permalink

  i recently discussed with a meteorologue here (of german origin) about why it seems more difficult to predict the weather here: the network of measuring stations is much less dense (obviously) and also the united states and canada do not share weather data. i think that the relative flatness of the eastern side of the north-american continent also allows weather phenomena to move very quickly.

• Kate 18:57 on 2011/02/27 Permalink

  Could be. I’ve noticed Environment Canada hedging their bets before, though. They often predict rain on summer days that turn out cloudlessly clear, so I suppose they may also have been slammed for failing to predict bad summer weather. Which is worse – wrongly predicting lousy weather so people stay home on a nice day? Or wrongly predicting good weather so people get drenched at a picnic?

• Ian 09:19 on 2011/02/28 Permalink

  Another thing worth noting is that Montreal is an island, creating its own localized weather pattern. That big area of cold air over the water surrounding the warmer urban area often acts as a wedge when there’s weather rolling in – this is why they get more lightning storms in Laval and the South Shore than we do downtown. It works the same with snow, too.

• Kevin 10:23 on 2011/02/28 Permalink

  Stefan’s comments are intriguing but I don’t think they are accurate.
  I used to share an office with a meteorologist (long story) and he said the density of weather stations across North America is pretty high, and data is shared between the US and Canada.

  Part of the job is that while we, the public, just see faceless ‘Environment Canada’ forecasts, the individual at the desk does have quite a bit to say about how to interpret the computer’s predictions — and the percentage chance of precipitation (which most people ignore) is important.

  Overall it’s a lot easier to handle Montreal that it is, say, Victoria, where they have to rely entirely on satellite info because there are no weather stations in the Pacific!

• Stefan 12:43 on 2011/02/28 Permalink

  my earlier post was relating second-hand information.

  so research at environment canada reveals that canada and u.s. use different standards for measuring weather data, which may be the reason why sharing may be limited or not occur, while there is some pilot project to start doing that. furthermore it says that canada has 303 weather reference stations (austria has 240, at less than 1% of canada’s landmass).

  http://www.ec.gc.ca/envirozine/default.asp?lang=En&n=0F5559B9-1

  i agree that a percentage of precipitation is difficult to interpret for most people.

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