Northern Canada is being negatively impacted due to gaps in weather data in issues including hunting, health, the ability to prepare for the accelerating effects of climate change, said Researchers, residents and elected officials were reported saying in Labrador.
“We used to have a better climate observing network in the north than we do today,” Robert Way, an assistant professor of geography at Queens University reported saying.
Since there can be hundreds of kilometres between weather stations in northern Canada, he said, many small communities lack accurate information about the weather, which can be dangerous for people travelling on the land.
“I don’t want to make it dire and say it can be life or death, but it actually can,” he said and added that gaps in weather data also affect air travel to remote communities, said Way.
The rudimentary airport infrastructure many northern routes are already challenging to fly, and the changing weather patterns are adding to the difficulties of keeping flights on schedule, Philip Earle, vice president of Labrador-based airline Air Borealis was reported saying and added that there’s a greater need for consistent, uniform weather monitoring at all small airports in the north.
#NorthernCanada; #gapsinweatherdata
