More weather information
Farmers across most of the Prairies early this week had only to look out the window at the rain and snow to determine the weather.
But to get a forecast of what it was going to be like by the end of the week they had a new source, one found on the window to the world – the internet.
Detailed two- and five-day forecasts from Environment Canada are part of the weather information now found on a new service offered by the Canadian Wheat Board on its website at www.cwb.ca.
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There are also maps of satellite images that show clouds and radar images indicating where it is raining or snowing.
The board has joined with Environment Canada to run a one-year pilot project to provide more detailed information than what is available for free from the weather office.
The board is paying $800 a month for the service, which gives current conditions and forecasts for 115 sites on the Prairies.
Farmer inspired
Jim Pietryk, board information officer, said the idea for the service came from farmers visiting the board’s Winnipeg offices. They saw its world weather surveillance operations and suggested they would also like a source of real time weather information for their local area.
The world weather and crop update information updated regularly on the board’s website gets about 3,000 visits a month, Pietryk said.
He said the board expects that by the end of the trial, the new local weather pages will get about 10,000 visitors a month.
As of May 10, the real time weather service wasn’t fully operational and contained only forecasts for major cities. But soon it is expected to have forecasts across the plains, from Arnes on Lake Winnipeg in the east to Chetwynd in B.C.’s Peace country in the west, and Milk River Alta., near the United States border in the south to Meadow Lake at the northern edge of Saskatchewan’s grain belt.
Marketing help
While the local forecasts will help plan farming operations such as spraying, international weather and crop outlooks from the board’s own weather department can help in marketing plans.
For example, although U.S. farmers cut their winter wheat acres last fall, the CWB’s weather department has kept track of the near ideal conditions in that area and has for some time indicated the possibility of the bumper crop that is now weighing down wheat prices.
