Sask. weather stations out of service at the moment

The two weather radar stations that Environment Canada uses in Saskatchewan are out of service.

The department’s website says the radar unit near Radisson is being replaced as previously announced plan to upgrade all stations across Canada, including ones in southeast Alberta.

It isn’t expected to begin operating until the end of March, while the Bethune radar station was damaged during an October wind storm and will be offline until the end of the month.

John Paul Cragg with Environment Canada says forecasters are using data from other radars for weather reports, including stations in the U.S., Manitoba and Alberta.

Last February, the federal government announced it would spend $83 million to upgrade Canada’s network of weather radars over seven years.

As first reported in the News, the Environment Canada radar station in Schuler will also be replaced, though there is no schedule for when.

Updating the station with new technology would effectively double the range of doppler from a 120-kilometre radius to 240.

With it, the Schuler coverage area would stretch from Lethbridge and Strathmore to about Assiniboia, Sask., and from well south of Havre, Mont. to Hardisty.

Wainwright (near Hardisty) and Swift Current appear within a federal evaluation as two of the top five locations where radar capability is currently limited.

The government has said the new stations will be better able to anticipate severe weather and give earlier warnings of tornadoes and lightning storms.