News
New weather stations for Manitoba

July 28, 2014 - The Manitoba government is installing 60 new automated weather stations across the province, to provide additional accurate and detailed weather information.

It a news release from the Manitoba government, it was stated that these weather stations will improve the government's ability to forecast floods and droughts, fight forest fires and "ensure Manitoba's farmers can access the detailed weather information they need."

The new weather stations, to be installed this fall, will include all-season precipitation gauges to collect snow and rainfall precipitation to improve flood forecasting related to spring thaws and rainfall-driven events. They will transmit hourly data on air temperature, humidity, rainfall and soil temperature.

Twenty of the stations will be placed in areas at risk for forest fires to support Manitoba's firefighting prevention programs. The other 40 stations will be located in agricultural areas to enhance Manitoba's agro-meteorology program, which provides weather-related information and other tools to producers at no charge, which is then used for their crop and land-management decisions. The new weather stations are expected improve the Manitoba government's ability to report on crop and soil conditions, assess risks from crop diseases and insects, and support decision-making for the crop-residue burning program.

The expansion of the weather station network was a recommendation from the 2011 Flood Review Task Force.

July 29, 2014  By Top Crop Manager