Weather from the cloud: How hobbyists inform the Northern forecast
Thousands of backyard weather stations in Canada are changing the science of forecasting
Call it crowd-sourced weather.
A growing number of hobbyists across the North are using simple backyard weather stations to help provide more detailed forecast information.
The small data-collecting stations are typically installed like birdhouses on rooftops, balconies or yards, and are connected to the internet. The information is compiled and published through an app called Weather Underground, or "Wundergound", for short.
Peter Von Gaza, who lives in Whitehorse's Riverdale neighbourhood, installed such a station about two years ago on top of a shed. He bought the kit online for about $80.
"There's about an hour of soldering involved. They have good tutorials for putting it together," he said.
The little device now uploads data to Weather Underground every minute. It records local temperature, humidity and wind speed.
"It's been going a couple years, on and off. Occasionally, I have breakdowns. My dogs knocked the wires off," he said.
Because Whitehorse has a elevated plateau, mountains and the Yukon River within city limits, one neighbourhood's readings are often different from another's.
"Here in this corner of Riverdale, we're generally two to three degrees colder than up at the airport," Von Gaza said.
"I always check my own weather locally here if I want to go hiking."
200,000 stations worldwide
Weather Underground was founded in 1995 as a class project at the University of Michigan.
The app has since been acquired by the IBM-owned Weather Company. It won't reveal how many people use the app, but has said it includes data from more than 200,000 stations around the world.
Weather Company spokesperson Andria Stark says about 4,600 of those personal weather stations are in Canada. The app also includes data from airports and other public data.
"We're working to expand the network into areas that may be currently underserved," she wrote in an email to CBC.
CBC North meteorologist approves
The app is definitely useful, according to CBC North's meteorologist Ashley Brauweiler, who's based in Yellowknife. She says Wunderground can sometimes provide more detail than Canada's federal weather service.
"Environment Canada, they have their stations but they're often very spread out. And considering [that] north of 60, the communities themselves are spread out, it's kind of hard sometimes to get an idea of what's actually happening," she said.
Some of Yukon's backyard stations are in Carmacks, Beaver Creek and at Eagle Plains on the Dempster Highway. Other Northern stations are installed as far north as Paulatuk, N.W.T. and Gjoa Haven, Nunavut.
"The way I use the program is essentially to see if there's a cold front or a warm front. I can determine that by a shift in temperatures or the wind — just a visual interpretation of what's happening," Brauweiler said.
