KING CITY, ONT. – Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) has fully replaced its operational weather-radar network.
Since 2016 the federal government has invested $180.4 million to install 32 state-of-the-art weather radars and one training radar across Canada, an ECCC release said.
The new network will improve the department’s ability to track severe weather events and issue earlier severe weather warnings.
The coverage area of the new radars increased from just over one million square kilometres to over four million square kilometres. In addition to replacement of 31 aging radar installations a new radar in the Lower Athabasca region of Alberta has been added to the network.
A training radar was also added near Egbert, Ont. and is used to train radar technologists and engineers, as well as by ECCC scientists to test new hardware and software prior to their deployment to the other radars. Conventional radar range of the new radars has also been extended from 250 kilometres to 330 kilometres.
The first radar was installed in Radisson, Sask. in the fall of 2017 and the final radar was installed on Halfmoon Peak, B.C., in the summer of 2023, the release said.
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