Natural Resources Canada, Canadian Forest Service, Wildland Fire Information Systems Unpublished material Version 1.2.1: Database tables and files originating from etl_fedstn1.2.1 (C language), run 20120405 Profile Weather stations used in the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System Northern Forestry Centre, Edmonton, AB, Canada Wildland Fire Information Systems group Available upon request This dataset describes lists of weather stations operated by federal or provincial and territorial agencies that supply weather observations to the Canadian Wildland Fire Information System (CWFIS). The station lists may be database tables or files derived from the tables. In the case of files, they should be created using the original table name somewhere in the file name e.g. a full table export of CAN_STN could be simply named can_stn.txt). Agencies operating the stations include Environment Canada -- Meteorological Service of Canada (EC-MSC), Nav Canada, the National Weather Service of the USA, and provincial and territorial fire management agencies. For a description of EC-MSC station history data see WeatherStations_MSC_Hist_full{abbr}.xml. For a description of provincial fire management agency station files see WeatherStations_Prov.xml. For a description of international station files see WeatherStations_intl.xml. The Canadian Wildland Fire Information System (CWFIS) is designed to provide comprehensive Canadian forest fire information to suit a variety of users. The CWFIS has a national focus and includes daily calculation and spatial display of Canadian Wildland Forest Fire Danger Rating System (CFFDRS) indexes, smoke dispersion indexes, and fire locations. Other features include national situation reporting, fire growth modeling on selected fires, forecast products, and background information on forest fire science. The CWFIS is used by the general public, wildland fire management agencies, rural fire departments, educational facilities, and a variety of industry, including those with aviation, forestry, and agricultural interests. Critical wildland fire information is relayed to the federal Minister of Natural Resouces, and exchanged between government departments. 19700101 00 20111231 23 Ground condition In work Annually or more often Canada, mainland USA -145.00000 -52.00000 83.00000 40.00000 None Cloud Fire Forest fire Humidity Lightning Precipitation Point Pressure Radiosonde Rainfall Rawinsonde Relative Humidity Snowfall Temperature Thuderstorm Visibility Weather Weather balloon Weather station Wildfire Wind None Canada United States of America mainland None None Accuracy is subject to errors and omissions in EC-MSC station catalogues and metstat1 files, WMO and NWS station documentation, and provincial and territorial station lists. Some attributes assigned or derived by NRCan-CFS-WFIS. An example is political timezone deviation from UTC, may be in error as digital timezone data has not been used. Some EC-MSC stations sending weather observations through WMO-standard bulletins cannot be identified and are therefore not included. Some are intentionally excluded where a companion instrument set is more reliable. Longitude and latitude is converted from degrees and minutes to decimal degrees, to three decimal places, for EC-MSC and international stations. Longitude and latitude for stations from some provincial agencies may require conversion, while other may not. EC-MSC station catalogue and metstat1 files World Meteorological Organization weather station documentation National Weather Service Telecommunication Operations Centre Yukon Community Services, Wildland Fire Management British Columbia Ministry of Forests and Range, Protection Division Alberta Sustainable Resource Development Saskatchewan Environment Manitoba Conservation Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources Societe de protection des forets contre le feu (SOPFEU) New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources Parks Canada, Wood Buffalo National Park Unpublished material Electronic text files 19000101 20111231 1.) Program etl_fedstn1.2.1 (C language) is run periodically to download and parse EC-MSC station catalogues (ftp://arcdm20.tor.ec.gc.ca/pub/doc/station_catalogue) and metstat1 files (http://www.climate.weatheroffice.ec.gc.ca/prods_servs/metstat1_e.html). From these a new master history table is created. Ongoing 2.) Program etl_fedstn1.2.1 creates, from the master history table, operational master, hourly, and synoptic station tables. Ongoing 3.) Program etl_worldstn1.2.1 creates a master world station table from WMO and NWS data sources. From these it creates a USA station table (BT.USA_STN). Ongoing 4.) Provincial station lists are obtained from provincial and territorial sources. Once an agency list has been compiled, new stations are normally appended to it. Ongoing 5.) Program etl_provstn1.2.1 creates BT.CAN_PROVSTN from provincial and territorial sources. Ongoing 6.) All possible CWFIS stations are combined using command line SQL into table BT.CWFIS_ALLSTN. Ongoing 7.) With historical FWI runs, a SQL script creates an annual history table (HISTWX.AES_STNHISTYYYY) by selecting, from the master history table created in Step 1, all stations that operated during part or all of that year. This script then creates annual operating tables HISTWX.CAN_YYYYSTN and CAN_SYNYYYYSTN. Ongoing 8.) Weather observation blending process etl_wxblend1.1 combines data from different sources to create the main input weather set for CFFDRS calculations, and creates the station table (CWFIS_STNYYYY) the CFFDRS calculation process uses. Ongoing Point AES Station identifier 7-character alphanumeric used by EC-MSC (previously Atmospheric Environment Service). For stations not operated by Canadian federal agencies, WFIS assigns the station WMO column to the AES column. EC-MSC; CFS char(7) alphanumeric AES alphanumeric station identifier EC-MSC; CFS WMO World Meteorological Organization station identification number, or a number assigned by WFIS. In the latter case, a number assigned to a federal station has 6 digits, with the first two representing the true WMO region. A number assigned to provincial or territorial stations may be the agency's own number, or a 4-digit number created by WFIS. WMO,EC-MSC,NWS,CFS integer: 1000-70999, 71001-71999, 72001-72999, 74001-74999, 710000-719999, 700000-729999 WMO Number WMO,EC-MSC,NWS,CFS ID Four-letter aerodrome identifier assigned by International Civil Aeronautics Organization (ICAO) or International Air Transport Association (IATA) ICAO/IATA char(4) alphanumeric: C??? (Canada, CCCC for provincial and territorial fire management agency stations), P??? (Alaska), K??? ("Lower 48" USA) ICAO/IATA aeordrome identifier ICAO,IATA,CFS NAME Weather station name Station operating agency char(50): spaces may be replaced by "+" INSTR Weather station instrument package name. Most of these are read from the EC-MSC metstat1 file, or indicated as 'SFC' if the station is a surface station from provincial fire management agencies or from the USA. A value of 'AUTO' is assigned if the station is known to be automatic but the specific instrument package is unknown. EC-MSC stations with a value of 'CON' have operation contracted to an external agency. Definitions of some station instrumentation types (e.g. FSS) are currently unknown. EC-MSC stations with an AU5 or READAC instrument set often have poor precipitation reporting, especially in the winter and/or with wind. Precipitation is interpolated at most of these locations, which may not be much more accurate, but at least we know the value's origin. EC-MSC; CFS char(6): AU2,AU4,AU5,AU7,AU8,AUTO,CAR,CON,DAI,FSS,MTL,NCA,PWS,SFC,UA,WO4,WS1,WS2,WS3,WSD Station instrumentation short name EC-MSC,CFS PROV Province or state two-letter postal abbreviation WFIS char(2) Province or state two-letter postal abbreviation EC-MSC,WMO,NWS,CFS LON Longitude of weather station Station operating agency (see AGENCY) Float (8,3): (-180.000, -40.000) Longitude of point location in decimal degrees EC-MSC,WMO,NWS,province or territory,CFS LAT Latitude of weather station Station operating agency (see AGENCY) Float (8,3): (20.000, 90.000) Latitude of point location in decimal degrees EC-MSC,WMO,NWS,province or territory,CFS ELEV Elevation above sea level of weather station (m). Agency station elevation may be sampled from a DEM if no measured elevation is available at their locations. Station operating agency (see AGENCY); CFS Integer (0, 3000) Station elevation (m) EC-MSC,WMO,NWS,province or territory,CFS TZ_CORRECT Difference in time zone between UTC and local time: TZ_CORRECT = UTC-LST. Some values may be incorrect since these are estimated from coordinate ranges and maps. Errors may occur where a station lies close to a time zone boundary, or where a community chooses to use a timezone its main supply centre lies in. CFS Integer (-12, 12) Time zone difference from UTC CFS H_BUL Hourly bulletin in which the station's reports reside in under the WMO's World Weather Watch Program. For provincial or territorial fire management agency stations that do not report under the WMO World Weather Watch program, H_BUL is "none". For federal stations with an unknown bulletin, H_BUL is "xxxxxx/xxxx". WMO,EC-MSC,NWS,CFS char(11) "bulletin/issuing_office_ICAO" e.g. sacn31/cwao S_BUL Synoptic or upper air bulletin in which the station's reports reside in under the WMO's World Weather Watch Program. For provincial or territorial fire management agency stations that do not report under the WMO World Weather Watch program, S_BUL is "none". For federal stations with an unknown bulletin, S_BUL is "xxxxxx/xxxx". WMO,EC-MSC,NWS,CFS char(11) "bulletin/issuing_office_ICAO" e.g. sacn31/cwao HLY Hourly observing program code EC-MSC,CFS char(1): D,G,H,X,'-' EC-MSC hourly observing program (EC-MSC stations only; at other stations a "-" is used) EC-MSC,CFS SYN Synoptic observing program code EC-MSC,CFS char(1): H,X,'-' EC-MSC synoptic observing program (EC-MSC stations only; at other stations a "-" is used) EC-MSC,CFS TMM Temperature observing program code EC-MSC,CFS char(1): '@', '-' EC-MSC temperature observing program (EC-MSC stations with a program use '@'; other stations use "-") EC-MSC,CFS UA Upper air observing program code EC-MSC,CFS char(1): '@', '-' EC-MSC upper air observing program (EC-MSC stations with a program use '@'; other stations use "-") EC-MSC,CFS USEINDEX Flag composed of the WMO number or a portion of it. If negative, the station is not used in FWI calculations. CFS Integer: (-9999, 729999) Station 'use' flag for CWFIS calculations CFS AGENCY Abbrevation of the agency providing the weather data source for the station. This is usually, but not always, the agency that operates the station. An example where this is untrue is a NavCan station where the weather data is retrieved from the EC-MSC datamart. CFS char(6): ASRD: Alberta Sustainable Resource Development (forest fire agency) DNR: Nova Scotia Department of Natural Resources (forest fire agency) MBCONS: Manitoba Conservation ( forest fire agency) MoFPB: British Columbia Forest Protection Branch (forest fire agency) MSC: Environment Canada -- Meteorological Service of Canada NBDNRE: New Brunswick Department of Natural Resources (forest fire agency) NWS: USA National Weather Service OMNR: Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources (forest fire agency) ParksC: Parks Canada SERM: Saskatchewan Environment (forest fire agency) SOPFEU: Societe de protection des forets contre le feu (forest fire agency) YTDoCS: Yukon Territory Department of Community Services (forest fire agency) Agency short name CFS THE_GEOM PostGIS geometry encoding CFS geometry SOURCE (Internal) Database table station information originates from CFS Database table name, may be HISTWX.CWFIS_TEMPSTNYYYY for station tables used in historical FWI calculations QUALITY Annual fire weather observation completeness: number of temperature, RH, wind, and preciptation observations divided by maximum number possible (e.g. a year with temperature and RH observations missing on 3 days, and precipitation on 5 days gets a final quality of (362 + 362. + 365. + 360)/365*4. = 0.9925 CFS Float (5,3): (0.000, 1.000) Observation record completeness CFS Overview of weather stations ... EC-MSC observing programs are described in the document found at ftp://arcdm20.tor.ec.gc.ca/pub/doc/station_catalogue/Station_Data_Catalogue_bilingual.doc. Canadian Forest Service - Wildland Fire Information Systems Richard Carr Mailing and physical

5320-122 Street

Edmonton AB T6H 3S5 Canada (780) 435-7313 (780) 435-7359 Data available through the CWFIS data warehouse None Postgres version 02 No compression applied Available via the CWFIS data warehouse No fees 20110902 Canadian Forest Service - Wildland Fire Information Systems Richard Carr Mailing and physical

5320-122 Street

Edmonton AB T6H 3S5 Canada (780) 435-7313 FGDC Content Standard for Digital Geospatial Metadata FGDC-STD-001-1998