Joe Waldner remembers the night last August when a radio in his home near Saskatoon began blaring an alert message.
“Of course I come to my desktop, I pull open my radar. I’m looking at this system going, ‘Oh yeah, this is going to be devastating,'” Waldner said.
It was warning him of an intense storm system that went on to produce large hail, strong winds and even a tornado over central Saskatchewan.
But Waldner is now without a way to get alerts like the way he did that August night.
Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) has shuttered its national Weatheradio service. The network of more than 200 stations — 11 of which were in Saskatchewan — provided 24-hour current conditions and forecasts on a continuous loop in English and French.
Weather alerts would also interrupt regular forecasts in the event of inclement weather and would sound alarms on specialized radios like Waldner’s to get people’s attention.
In a statement, ECCC said Weatheradio — which had been in operation since 1976 — was becoming too expensive to run.
“Maintaining the technology and services used to operate Weatheradio … is becoming increasingly challenging,” the statement said.
Environment Canada shutters long-running national Weatheradio service
Waldner, who is an amateur radio operator, said he’s sad to see it go.
“Most of the ham radio operators I know, they rely on it quite heavily,” he said.
Trent Walton, president of the Regina Amateur Radio Association, is one of those operators who would frequently tune in to get forecasts while fishing.
He said the service was important, especially in areas with little to no cell service, and was a crucial tool if cell towers went offline.
“It is maybe more of a basic form of communication and if things do break, simpler is often better,” said Walton.
ECCC said it is working with Public Safety Canada to strengthen the national public alerting system — better known as Alert Ready — to get weather warnings to people quickly.
The shutdown of Weatheradio comes just months after ECCC closed accounts it ran on X (formerly Twitter) and Facebook that gave weather information specific to each province and territory.
ECCC said it combined those accounts into one corporate account to “avoid potential confusion concerning where to access up-to-date weather information.”
But the general weather content posted on its corporate account — such as ads for ECCC’s new colour-coded weather alert system or downloading its WeatherCan app — is often interspersed with climate-related posts not related to weather forecasting.
Previous individualized accounts would often post details about upcoming snowstorms, severe thunderstorm or tornado watches that had been issued, plus summaries of major weather events.
Justin Oertel, who runs the Facebook page The Weather Centre of Manitoba, said he relied on ECCC’s Manitoba-specific account.
“It would give me that confidence that what I am sharing is also lining up with what Environment and Climate Change Canada is sharing as well,” said Oertel.
He’s worried weather enthusiasts on social media who don’t have as good of a grasp on meteorology will post weather data and information without context — especially as social media pages can earn money from views on their posts.
“Any Joe Blow out there can go on any weather modelling site and take a screenshot of the model saying that there’s going to be 40 inches of snow and post it and then they’re making tonnes of money,” said Oertel.
“They’re not educating people that, ‘Hey this is just one model run, we have to look for patterns in the model, we have to look at trends.'”
David Sills, director of the Northern Tornadoes Project at Western University, said X in particular remains a popular site for weather experts and storm chasers to post real-time weather information.
Those posts — such as a photo of a funnel cloud or video of storm damage — could be seen by the person monitoring the local ECCC X account and used to issue a tornado warning or to help determine what caused the damage.
“I’m a little concerned about where they may be getting those reports now if they’re not going to be on X,” said Sills. “They need to get those reports immediately [to] help them get warnings out in a very timely way.”
Oertel said it’s important for people to think critically about the weather information they’re consuming on social media.
He’s conscious about the tone he uses when posting content.
“We’re not hyping things. We’re not trying to scare people. We’re just trying to educate people,” said Oertel.
He said it’s important for people to know who the person is behind online weather accounts.
“It’s that person-to-person feel that people are needing and missing these days,” he said.
“I’m in the grocery store and people look at me kind of funny sometimes and I’m like, ‘Ah, they must know me from The Weather Centre [of Manitoba].'”
Waldner said a group of amateur radio operators in Saskatchewan is interested in starting a severe weather watching program to fill the gap left by the absence of Weatheradio.
Nothing has been launched yet, but Waldner — who also runs the Saskatchewan Severe Weather Tracker Facebook page — said the group wants to use the Internet Radio Linking Project to connect amateur radio stations to share weather information.
“We can talk to each other and say, ‘Hey, by the way guys, this is what’s coming,'” he said. “Or they alert me so I can then go on my Facebook page.”
