Ontario Fire Weather Network: Hourly Atmospheric Data from 123 Stations

123 automated stations operated by the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources provide continuous, real-time hourly observations. The network reports elements including temperature, humidity, precipitation, rainfall, snow depth, and wind. Data is made available without warranties by Aviation, Forest Fire and Emergency Services (AFFES).

Use Cases

• Modeling forest fire ignition probability based on temperature and humidity data.
• Predicting snow melt and runoff contributions based on snow depth measurements.
• Analyzing wind patterns for fire spread simulation based on wind observations.
• Monitoring precipitation trends for drought assessment based on rainfall and total precipitation data.

Strengths

• 123 stations provide a substantial network for spatial coverage.
• Real-time, hourly data feed offers high temporal resolution for monitoring.
• Continuous operation ensures year-round data availability.

Limitations

• Quality is not assessed, meaning accuracy and reliability are not guaranteed.
• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Data may reflect geographic bias inherent to the Ontario-specific network.

Provenance

Source

Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources

Collection Method

Automated station observations.

Freshness

Real time

Geography

Ontario, Canada