A cameraman from The Weather Network out of Mississauga, Ont., sets up for a shot at the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie, Ont. on Dec. 27, 2001.Leonard LePage/The Canadian Press
The Weather Network says its systems, including the website and mobile app, have been shut down because of a cybersecurity incident. The outage has only affected weather data systems, but services were still partly offline as of Tuesday evening.
Meanwhile, Atlantic Canada is preparing for a fall storm season, as Hurricane Lee is expected to bring strong winds and heavy rains to parts of the region this weekend.
With the Weather Network down, and many Canadians, especially in Atlantic Canada, relying on timely weather updates about the storm, here’s where else you can keep up with the latest weather in your area.
The government’s weather tracking services
Environment Canada provides up-to-date weather alerts for major cities across the country. It provides hourly or weekly forecasts, updates on air quality, special alerts and a map of the jet stream. Here’s a list of the many ways you can access the government’s weather tracking services:
The WeatherCAN app is available on both Apple and Android devices. Environment Canada also offers two types of telephone services for weather information to allow Canadians to get updates almost anywhere there is a cellphone signal or a land line:
- Hello Weather is a free automated recording of current conditions, forecasts and warnings for many communities in your local calling area. The toll-free number is 1-833-794-3556 for English, and 1-833-586-3836 for French.
- The Live Weather Consultation Services Weather allows Canadians to consult an Environment and Climate Change Canada weather professional. The service is available weekdays from 5 a.m. to 9 p.m. and weekends and statutory holidays from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., for $2.99 per minute, plus taxes, which will be added directly to your telephone bill. The number to call is 1-900-565-5555.
The Weather Canada website is accessible from a browser by desktop or mobile. You can search by province, city or using your current location to get a weather forecast. Plus, the website also has storm-specific pages that track storms or special alerts. For example, Environment Canada currently has a page for Hurricane Lee updates.
Local news, radio, television
Listen to the radio
- Local radio news stations provide weather updates. Having a battery-operated radio is beneficial in emergency situations where power and internet services are down.
- The Weatheradio network of radio transmitters provides continuous broadcasts of weather information and instant updates about threatening weather. More than 90 per cent of Canadians live within range of a Weatheradio transmitter. Weatheradio broadcasts on the frequencies 162.400, 162.425, 162.450, 162.475, 162.500, 162.525, and 162.550 MHz. At selected locations, low power broadcasts without the alert tone are transmitted on the regular FM or AM band. A Weatheradio receiver is not required to hear these broadcasts. There are also a few websites dedicated to Weatheradio broadcasts (such as this one and this one) across Canada that you can listen to online.
Watch local news broadcasts
Local television news broadcasts also offer real-time weather updates.
Go directly to news sources for the latest information
Local news sources share weather updates on their news sites. With Meta blocking news sources on social media, it’s recommended to go directly to the news organization for the latest information.
Emergency alerts
In the event of emergency weather requiring action, emergency alerts will function. The National Public Alerting System is a federal, provincial and territorial system that enables emergency organizations across Canada to warn the public about dangers such as floods, tornadoes, hazardous material and fires. Alerts are broadcast to television, radio and sent to mobile devices connected to an LTE (long-term evolution) network.
Accuweather
The weather-monitoring company Accuweather is another resource that provides hyper-localized forecasts from around the world. It collects a database of forecast models from around 2.3 million locations and employs more than 100 expert meteorologists. You can search your location on the website or the mobile app (Apple and Android).
Other sources for weather, available online or as apps
- Google’s web browser pulls in forecast information from sources such as The Weather Channel and its own machine learning techniques.
- Apple’s weather app for iOS devices gets its information from Environment and Climate Change Canada.
- Microsoft’s weather app, MSN Weather, pulls its radar map information from Environment and Climate Change Canada.