New radar system aimed to keep Canadians safe from severe weather
In the small community of Egbert, Ont., sits a weather radar training site, helping to train meteorologists across the country with the latest and best equipment before they head out to protect Canadians from severe storms.
The training facility is a direct copy of 32 radar towers built across Canada from 2017 to 2023, which help meteorologists detect storms quicker and more accurately.
"With the increasing severity of weather events, the network basically being on the verge of obsolescence needed to be replaced," said Peter Leibiuk, a manager with Environment and Climate Change Canada.
According to Leibiuk, discussions to start the massive replacement project began around 2010. With the new state-of-the-art technology, the range of radar has been increased dramatically, from 120 kilometers to 240km. With the help of a new Dual-Polarization system, the weather agency can also better identify what it is trying to capture.
"Essentially, we can tell more about what the radar is seeing, distinguishing from rain, snow, hail and graupel and even non-meteorlogical targets like bugs," Leibiuk said.
In the case of tornados, minutes can save lives. Previously, a scan could take up to 10 minutes. Now, it can take six.
"That extra four minutes can be the difference between making it to the basement or not when a tornado warning comes out," Leibiuk added.
At the Egbert site, technicians can spend up to three weeks learning how to operate and diagnose any challenges that may come up.
They are then assigned to work at towers across the country, with the closest in King City.
With the oldest tower being just seven years old, Leibiuk said the weather agency expects this technology to be in place for decades. However, it is always looking to upgrade as new technology becomes available.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Parents of infant who died in wrong-way crash on Ontario's Hwy. 401 were in same vehicle
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit has released new details about a wrong-way collision in Whitby on Monday night that claimed the lives of four people.
Three Quebec men from same family father hundreds of children
Three men in Quebec from the same family have fathered more than 600 children.
B.C. mayor stripped of budget, barred from committees over Indigenous residential schools book
A British Columbia mayor has been censured by city council – stripping him of his travel and lobbying budgets and removing him from city committees – for allegedly distributing a book that questions the history of Indigenous residential schools in Canada.
OPP's mandatory alcohol screening during traffic stops 'not acceptable': CCLA
A spike in impaired driving-related collisions has caused Ontario’s provincial police to begin enforcing mandatory alcohol screening (MAS) at all traffic stops in the Greater Toronto Area -- a move one civil rights group says is ‘not acceptable.’
Maple Leafs down Bruins 2-1 to force Game 7
William Nylander scored twice and Joseph Woll made 22 saves as the Toronto Maple Leafs downed the Boston Bruins 2-1 on Thursday to force Game 7 in their first-round series.
Jurors in Trump hush money trial hear recording of pivotal call on plan to buy affair story
Jurors in the hush money trial of Donald Trump heard a recording Thursday of him discussing with his then-lawyer and personal fixer a plan to purchase the silence of a Playboy model who has said she had an affair with the former president.
Southern Alberta store broken into by burly black bear
Staff at a small southern Alberta office supply store were shocked to find someone had broken into the business last week, but they were even more confused when they discovered the culprit was a bear.
Captain sentenced to 4 years for criminal negligence in fiery deaths of 34 aboard scuba boat
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced a scuba dive boat captain to four years in custody and three years supervised release for criminal negligence after 34 people died in a fire aboard the vessel.
New scam targets Canada Carbon Rebate recipients
Fake text message and email campaigns trying to get money and information out of unsuspecting Canadian taxpayers have started circulating, just months after the federal government rebranded the carbon tax rebate the Canada Carbon Rebate.