It's a question that people ask routinely.. what is the temperature outside? And although you can get a reasonable answer from a variety of sources these days from car thermometers to billboard displays, the official answer always defaults to the temperature reading at Winnipeg airport's weather station, the official source of weather observations for Environment Canada. Weather observations started at Winnipeg airport (YWG) in March 1938, and have been a daily ritual for the past 75 years, measuring all aspects of Winnipeg weather including temperature, precipitation, wind, pressure, humidity, and virtually anything else that Mother Nature has thrown us.
As we approach the 75th anniversary of weather observations at Winnipeg airport, let's take a retrospective look at the history of weather observing in Winnipeg.
Winnipeg's first official weather observations: St John's College (1872 - 1938)
 |
St Johns College
Site of weather observing
program for Winnipeg
1872 - 1938 |
Official weather observations in Winnipeg actually began many years before Winnipeg airport was even around. Way back in
March 1872, daily weather observations for Winnipeg started at
St John's College off Main St and Anderson, site of present day
St John's Anglican Church. This observation program was started to support the newly founded
Meteorological Service of Canada that was established by the federal government in
1871. Daily weather observations continued at St John's College for 66 years until Winnipeg airport took over weather observing duties in 1938. The observations from St John's College are recognized as official climate records for Winnipeg, and are included in a merged climate database with Winnipeg airport that extends the city's weather record database to
over 140 years, one of the longest continuous weather observing programs in Canada. St John's College holds the distinction of recording both the hottest and coldest temperatures ever officially recorded in Winnipeg... 42.2C (108F) on July 11 1936, and -47.8C (-54F) on Dec 24 1879.
(Click here for historical weather data recorded at St Johns' College between 1872 and 1938.)
Winnipeg airport observations : March 1938 - present
 |
Winnipeg Intl Airport ca 1950s
known as Stevenson Aerodrome
before it eventually became
Richardson Intl Airport (YWG) |
In March 1938, Winnipeg International airport (known as
Stevenson Aerodrome at the time) began its official weather observing program to support aviation and meteorological services. The observing program relied on human weather observers to record daily weather data, including extremes. In January 1947, a full hourly observing program began at the airport, with
hourly weather data available online from January 1953 on. This observing program continued uninterrupted for over 50 years until July 2008 when automation starting taking over weather observing commitments. This marked an important transition in the weather observing program that had been a strictly human based endeavour for over 135 years.
(Click here for Winnipeg International airport observations between 1938 and 2008)
Weather observing program moves towards automation: July 2008 - present
In July 2008, weather observations for YWG airport switched to an automated system as modern technology and tightening resources necessitated a change in the human observing program. Most of the weather data is now collected automatically from an
Automated
Weather
Observing
System, or
AWOS for short. A human observer still inputs the data manually including precipitation start and end times, but for the most part, much of the weather observation is taken automatically by the AWOS. An important note here is that snowfall data (including snow depth) stopped in 2008 since AWOS is not able to measure snowfall depth, and human observers were not required to take snowfall measurements manually. Instead, the AWOS measures only
melted snow , ie. the water equivalent of snow that falls.
Thus, snowfall data for Winnipeg, which had been taken since 1872, was no longer being observed after 135 years of continuous observations. Snowfall data for Winnipeg is now taken at nearby volunteer climate stations that still record snowfall manually, including my site known as
Winnipeg Charleswood 2.
(Click here for Winnipeg AWOS climate data from July 2008 to Jan 2013)
January 2013 - A change in automation and station ownership
On January 17 2013, the automated weather observations from YWG were switched to a new AWOS station operated by
NavCanada, the agency responsible for aviation services in Canada. This signalled the first time that weather observations for Winnipeg airport were not the responsibility of the Meteorological Service of Canada, but a third party. This new weather observation station, known as an HWOS (
Human
Weather
Observation
System) relies on automated observations from the weather station, but still requires a human observer to input the observation (like the previous AWOS setup) Environment Canada still has a co-located weather station at the airport (Winnipeg CS - XWG) but it does not upload current weather information to its website. All current weather information for YWG comes from the new HWOS station (listed simply as "Winnipeg" on EC's climate website - click
here for archived data. Note that currently only
hourly data is available from this station, not daily or monthly climate statistics)
In summary, here are the list of official Winnipeg observing stations:
St John's College ...... March 1872 - July 1938 (daily & monthly data)
Winnipeg Intl A .......... March 1938 - July 2008 (hourly, daily & monthly data)
Winnipeg AWOS ....... July 2008 - Jan 2013 (hourly and daily data)
Winnipeg (HWOS) .... Jan 17 2013 - present (hourly data only)
Winnipeg "A" CS ..... Oct 1996 - present (daily data, monthly data to 2008)
In addition, EC has an automated station downtown at
The Forks, which began operation in November 1999. This station has maintained the same observation program since inception.
Although equipment and reporting procedures have changed, Winnipeg residents can be rest assured that weather observations continue at Winnipeg airport maintaining a legacy of weather observing in this city that has spanned over 140 years.
Winnipeg weather extremes since 1872:
15 comments:
Thanks for the great information in this post.
Weakening band of snow pushing through Winnipeg this morning.. bulk of it is passing to the north of us, but we may see a dusting to 2 cm here in the city. Portage has picked up 2 cm this morning, Brandon 3 cm.
152 mm in one day wow! Rob would that be the month with the highest amount of precipitation, 255 mm? And is the yearly precipitation record still 723.5 mm in 1962?
How can u go from a 5am update of 30% chance of flurries to a 11am update of snow 2-4cm. Does that mean tomorrows 60% chance of flurries is going to be 5-10cm.
I hear you Daryl,
This is kind of ridiculous. Being in the snow clearing business as well I do rely on a somewhat accurate forecast. Going from 30% chance of flurries to 2-4 cm out of the blue is quite strange. Hell I can look at the radar and make these forecasts.
Right now, we're the only province (sans the NWT and Nunavut if one was to include those territories) without any sort of a watch or warning.
I picked up around 0.5-1 cm in Charleswood today.. it was more of an off and on flurry type of day. Light fluffy stuff.. Looked worse at times than actually accumulated.
>> Anonymous said.. 152 mm in one day wow! Rob would that be the month with the highest amount of precipitation, 255 mm? And is the yearly precipitation record still 723.5 mm in 1962?
Yes, June 1901 is Winnipeg's wettest month at 255 mm thanks to that 152 mm rainfall. And 1962 is still Winnipeg's wettest year..
Considering there was only 0.3 mm less precip. in 2010 compared to 1962, combined with a dry bias at the airport that we've been taking about the last few years, I wouldn't be surprised if 2010 truly is the wettest year.
If we take rainfall only, I've calculated it to be a total of about 640 mm that year, which easily makes 2010 the rainiest year (beating 633.5 mm in 1977). If this dry bias thing is true, then that amount is even higher... Rob had 753.2 mm of rain, while amounts were even higher in south/east ends thanks to some more direct hits by tstorms.
@Daryl,
Looks like (for the most part), that change to the forecast yesterday is working out.
Brad
Not sure quite what u mean. Forecast change yesterday called for 2-4 cm yesterday and we got maybe a 1/2 cm. And 60% chance of flurries today. Forecast changed again with periods of snow for today now changed again till tomorrow noon.
Very mild conditions in Southern Ontario/Southern Quebec with thunderstorms...
Up to 17C in the Niagara peninsula.
17.2C in Port Weller, Ontario today... Canadian warmspot.
Up to 16.1C in extreme Southern Quebec as well.
Further south, they are having tornadoes.
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