What's New on the Weather Site

Welcome to the Manitoba Ag-Weather Program. This initiative provides weather-related information and value-added tools for Manitoba producers. All of the current and archived weather data is available free of charge. To access current weather conditions, choose “View Updated Current Conditions” on the left menu from the main Ag-Weather Program page. As the program continues to develop, more functionality will be added to the website and coverage of weather monitoring across agro-Manitoba will be enhanced. These stations are intended to compliment the current distribution of automated Environment Canada weather stations and those of other networks.

The network is made up of approximately 40 automated near real-time permanent weather stations. All of our stations monitor air temperature, relative humidity, rainfall, wind speed/wind direction (at either 2m or 10m heights), and soil temperature (5cm depth). Selected stations also measure shortwave radiation (RF1).

Our newest stations for 2010 include Wawanesa and Deloraine. These two sites are expected to fill in some gaps in the Southwest. Two additional stations were also installed near Melita and Hamiota in partnership with WADO (Westman Agricultural Diversification Organization) to provide site-specific monitoring at their field trial sites.

Since 2008, each station has been equipped with a second rain gauge for quality assurance purposes. As all automated tipping bucket rain gauges are subject to occasional malfunction due to obstructions or other issues, any discrepancy between gauge #1 and gauge #2 will indicate that a problem may exist. The station can then be visited and the rain gauges can be inspected. Having two gauges ensures that a rain event is never missed. Each station is equipped with one Hydrological Services TB3 or TB4 siphoning rain gauge as a primary and a Texas Electronics TR-525M as a secondary.

We would like to thank all of the partners, including land owners, who have helped with this project.