Education

CANWARN, acronym for CANadian Weather Amateur Radio Network

Please note that CANWARN is not about storm chasing, it is about putting trained eyes at the local level to confirm what is happening under severe weather and communicating that information to the Meteorological Service of Canada.Here’s how CANWARN works in Central Alberta. When the regional weather forecast office (for the prairies this is the Prairie Storm Prediction Centre in Winnipeg, MB) would like to get ground observations of potentially severe thunderstorms they telephone the CANWARN person whom they have listed as the call-out person for the area of interest. In Central Alberta this will be the same people that are listed as ARES emergency coordinators. All Central Alberta and Olds ARES EC’s are trained CANWARN network controllers. The mechanics of how the net operates, local hams are notified and how their weather reports are forwarded to the forecast office are up to the CANWARN net controller. CANWARN Net Control may relay the observations or may elect to use a phone  to put the forecasters and amateur observer in direct contact.Typically, the person contacted by the Meteorological Service of Canada notifies the affected-area CANWARN hams who then radio their weather reports to their CANWARN Net Control Net. Net control then forwards the weather observations to the weather forecast office on a dedicated 1-800 phone number. As the storm moves along, reports would hopefully still come in from either stationary or mobile spotters allowing weather forecasters to continually compare the Carvel and Strathmore Doppler radar to what is being observed at ground level (below the radar horizon) and adjust their weather forecasts, Watches and Warnings accordingly.