Environment Canada implements targeted alert system for extreme weather warnings
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Canada’s weather website is getting a minor facelift to reduce notification fatigue.
Environment and Climate Change Canada say its new system is meant to address the high number of weather alerts Canadians get on their cellphones through a more targeted approach.
Federal forecasters said the new system will be better equipped to target alerts specific to an area that forecasters think will be hit by severe thunderstorms or tornadoes, rather than issuing a blanket warning across large swaths of territory.
It means that Meteorological Service of Canada forecasters could paint a much tighter picture around an area they think is most likely to be affected and then push an alert to phones in that area.
The changes, which took effect on Tuesday, will only apply to severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings.
Heat warning alerts and thunderstorm watches will still have broad alert areas.
Days before the launch
The site changes come days after southern Ontario was hit by a couple of confirmed tornado touch downs on Saturday evening.
The Northern Tornadoes Project (NTP) said a tornado struck the ground in Lindsay followed by a second one in Woodstock.
The NTP “aims to better detect tornado occurrence throughout Canada, improve severe and extreme weather understanding and prediction, mitigate against harm to people and property, and investigate future implications due to climate change,” the website said.
The Woodstock tornado came as Environment Canada issued a tornado warning for the region, along with the usual hallmarks of a tornado: high winds, large hail and heavy rain. With the new system now in place, affected areas should have tighter weather windows for forecasters to predict the path for severe weather.
Environment Canada noted that the colour-coded yellow (hazardous), orange (severe) and red (very dangerous) weather warning system, adopted in November of 2025, and currently still in place, will temporarily remain in play to allow for third-party weather platforms to adjust.
The colour-coded system replaced general weather watches and warnings. The changes at that time aligned with recommendations from the World Meteorological Association and followed updates implemented by 31 weather agencies across Europe.
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