DAILY CLIMATE DATA CD-ROMS
Canadian Daily Climate Data Temperature and Precipitation
Eastern Canada 1996 CD
Western Canada 1996 CD

Author: Climate Information Branch, Atmospheric Environment Service, Environment Canada
Disseminator: Environment Canada
Version:  Copyright 1998.
Data Time Span: 1840 to 1996.

EDUCATIONAL AND NON-COMMERCIAL RESEARCH LIMITED USE SOFTWARE AND DATA PRODUCT LICENSE AGREEMENT with Environment Canada

Contents:


Introduction

The Canadian Daily  Climate CD-ROMS are an archive of daily temperature, precipitation, and snow depth data recorded at over 6900 active or inactive meteorological observation stations across Canada between the years of 1830 and 1996.  Due to the large volume of records, the archive had to be split into CD-ROMs - Western and Eastern Canada.  The Western Canada CD contains climate data for all stations in Yukon, N.W.T, B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba.  The Eastern Canada CD contains climate data from stations located within Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritime provinces.  Stations are archived by district rather than province.

Data display is available in the form of numerous summary reports, using DOS-based software included on the CD.  A separate program, also included on the CD, allows for extraction of these data.

Summary of the Daily Climate CD-ROM DOS-based software capabilities:


Getting Started

Ask in the Data Library for the Daily Climate Data CD-ROM.

To display summaries and analyses of daily temperature/precipitation/snow_depth data:

insert the CD into the CD-ROM drive and run the locally installed program cdcd.exe . You will be requested, in a step-wise fashion, for your choice of district, station, and menu selection.
If you wish to extract daily temperature/precipitation/snow_depth data:
run the locally installed program cdex.exe.  Follow the sequence of instructions provided by the software upon startup.  You will be requested, in a step-wise fashion, for your choice of district, station, and export format parameters.
Note 1: mouse actions are not supported by these DOS-based software programs and therefore require keystrokes for navigation.  The software is very user-friendly, however, and provides on-screen instructions throughout the process.
Note 2: this software does not allow data to be selected, displayed, printed, or extracted for more than one station at a time.  If you want data for multiple stations, you must select/display/print/extract these data for each station separately.

Menu Navigation

The following are menu choices for the climate dailys software (cdcd.exe):
1.Summaries Menu:

2. Analyses Menu:
Extreme Values - searches data archive for extreme minimum or maximum value of selected station for selected period and climate variable.
Occurrence of Values - searches data archive for frequency, most recent, or earliest climate variable value for specified search expression (i.e. one-day rainfall <= 20 mm;  mean temperature > 25 oC) and for specified search period of specified station.
Seasonal Occurrences - lists dates of first and last occurrence of specified climatic condition search expression during specified season (i.e. spring, summer, autumn, winter, user-defined, full year, etc.) for specified station and search years.
Sums & Averages - lists the average temperature and precipitation values for specified monthly period and station.  Note that this section uses monthly data.

All of the above reports, although not available for export, are available in hardcopy format by pressing <P> to print.

3. Utilities Menu:
About - information on the CD product
Calendar - displays a calendar and/or Canadian statutory holidays for selected month and year (from 1753 to 9999);
Print Options - allows user to select output device, change the character set, and advance paper.
User Guide - online help screen.
Change to a Different Disc - allows user to switch between the Eastern Canada and Western Canada CDs.
4. Exit Menu:
Quit - exit from the program
DOS Shell - allows the user to perform some other DOS activity by temporarily exiting from the program.  To return to the program, type exit at any DOS prompt.


Data Extraction

Temperature, precipitation, and snow depth daily measurements are available for extraction from the CD-ROM one station at a time using the cdex.exe software.  The extraction process first requires specification of a district and station, then gives a screen similar to the example below:

You are then required to specify the file output format (choices are archive format, comma delimited, or ASCII text), the elements to export or you may export all elements at once (available elements listed in the blue window), the year range, and the output drive and path.

The output file will appear in the specified path with a software-specified filename, where the extension is typically .all, and the name refers to the conversion type requested (A for archive format, C for comma delimited, and T for ASCII text format) followed by the station identifier.  So in the above example, the exported file would be called:

c:\temp\T61587p6.all
If the elements are output one file at a time, then the extensions would correspond to the element number, for example c:\temp\T61587p6.003.

Help

Both pieces of software (cdcd.exe and cdex.exe) are inherently user-friendly, in that each step is guided by on-screen sequential instruction.  The user manual available from the Utilities menu provides a general summary of the overall program.  If you require help on a specific topic and do not want to wade through the entire user manual, you may search the user manual for a specific string.

Features/Hints

Keystroke Commands:
The software is not navigable using a mouse, but rather keystrokes.  All of the keystroke commands and their respective actions are described on-screen at each step, making it easy to navigate through the software.  The user manual also describes shortcut keystrokes.

DOS Command Shortcut:
Upon startup of cdcd.exe, the program will prompt for district and station selection.  If you already know your station and/or district, however, you can skip this portion of the program by specifying these parameters at the DOS prompt before starting the software.  For example: for the Toronto at Scarborough College weather station (identifier number 61587P6), type:

>CDCD -dD 61587P6
where CDCD is the software application, -dD tells the software to use the D: drive for location of the data, and 61587P6 is the station identifier.

DLY02/DLY04 Stations:
DLY04 data are archived records daily climate measurements transcribed from paper forms, available on this CD-ROM.  Over the last few years, automatic weather stations (i.e. stations which transmit hourly climate measurements rather than archive using paper forms) have replaced people-manned stations or been added in more remote locations.  This version of the CD-ROM contains records for these DLY02 stations as well.  If you will be working with DLY02 data, note that little is known about reliability/consistency of these stations, and therefore be cautious of errors or increased numbers of missing values.  Check the DLY02 list for a list of automatic weather stations.  Also, check the DLY02/DLY04 list for a list of stations that report both DLY02 and DLY04 data.

Links to Other Sources of Monthly/Normals Climate Data Documentation



Created By: Hannah Wilson. Robarts Map Library, University of Toronto
Created On:  99/04/05
Last Updated:  99/04/12