Frequently Asked Questions about DriveBC Weather
General Information
Q. What kind of weather information can I expect to find on the DriveBC web site?
A.
Current weather conditions from Ministry of Transportation's weather stations, and route forecast information and city/airport reports from Environment Canada's Weatheroffice (current conditions and forecasts). There are also links to Environment Canada's Weather Warning site and their Weatheroffice site, where you can find detailed weather conditions and forecasts for all of British Columbia.
Q. Where does the weather information come from?
A. Weather reports on the DriveBC Weather Information website come from two main sources:
1. B.C. Ministry of Transportation weather stations (RWS, RAWS - see below)
2. Environment Canada
Q. I used to find many of these reports and forecasts on the ICBC TravelAlert website. Is it still available?
A. The website you are currently viewing was designed to replace the ICBC TravelAlert. It utilizes the same detailed route forecast information from Environment Canada.
Map Symbols and Icons
Q. What do the icons and symbols on the maps represent?
The regional maps are interactive, and you can find weather information by clicking on the various symbols:
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This icon represents Ministry of Transportation Weather Stations, that are located on major routes around the province. Information at these locations is very specific to that area (within a 1 km radius of the weather station. Clicking on this symbol will open a new window with weather station data.
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Represents a BC HighwayCam. Clicking on this symbol will open a new window with the route forecast data and highway cam image.
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Represents a Ministry of Transportation Highway Weather station with an BC HighwayCam. Clicking on this symbol will open a new window with the weather station data and highway cam image.
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Represents a group of BC HighwayCams. Clicking on this symbol will open a new window with the route forecast data and highway cam images.
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Represents a group of BC HighwayCams, one or more of which may be associated with a Road Weather Station. Clicking on this symbol will open a new window and display a group of cams, weather station data, and route forecast data..
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This orange dot represents a city or airport location. Clicking on this symbol will cause an animated Weatheroffice graphic with current information to appear on the map. Clicking on the animated graphic will open a new window with detailed weather information from the Weatheroffice.
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Mousing over, and clicking on the major routes will open a window with a detailed text report of the route you have selected. Use the scroll bars to see the whole report. |
About Road Weather Stations (RWS)
Q. Who, in the Ministry of Transportation, looks after the environmental sensing network?
A. Avalanche and Weather Programs.
Q. How many environmental sensing sites are there?
A. The environmental sensing network consists of 167 individual sites around the province. They report hourly data into the Snow Avalanche and Weather System (SAWS) program::
- 58 Road Weather Stations (RWS) - primarily used for highway maintenance decision-making support, but also used for avalanche forecasting where appropriate.
- 48 Remote Avalanche Weather Stations (RAWS) for avalanche forecasting
- 84 frost probes (23 are co-located with Road Weather Stations) are used for assessing and forecasting changes in pavement strength in order to apply timely Seasonal Load Restrictions and protect the highway infrastructure.
Q. Why do some weather stations have cams associated, and some not?
A. Not all cams have weather stations, and not all weather stations have cams. Weather stations have much lower data transmission and power consumption requirements and therefore can be located in areas where its not feasible to locate a web cam.
Q. Is there a listing of all the Road Weather Stations the Ministry of Transportation maintains?
A. Yes, the text version of this site has a listing of weather stations. Go here to view.
Q. Which cams have Ministry of Transportation weather station information associated with them?
A. The following 21 cams have weather station information associated with them. They are:
- 73 Mile
- Anarchist Summit
- Begbie Summit
- Black Creek
- Bradner Road
- Canal Flats
- Coquihalla Summit
- Dragon Lake
- Enterprise
- Helmer Lake
- Hungry Hill
- Kalamalka Lookout
- Kootenay Pass (Available from November to April only)
- Larson Hill
- Morrissey
- Onion Lake
- Radium
- Red Pass
- Salvus (Coming Soon)
- Sicamous (Malakwa)
- Walloper
Q. Do all the weather stations run year-round?
A. No, the following stations are temporarily decommisioned for various reasons, between May and October:
Northern Region
- Carl's Corner
- Snowbank Road
- Stewart
Southern Interior Region
- Kootenay Pass
- Fish Lake
- Toby Creek
Q. What is meant by "Current Weather " in the report windows? How current is it?
A. The "Current Weather" display panel displays the most recent data from Ministry of Transportation weather stations. These reports are very specific to the area they are in. They provide detailed information for air temperature, precipitation, wind speed, wind direction, and where available, road surface temperature. These reports are updated hourly.
Q. How should I use the "current" report from the Road Weather Stations? How are they placed and how large a radius does it cover?
A. The reports are very specific to the area that the cam and/or weather station is situated in. Generally, these weather stations are placed in areas where winter weather poses particular problems for highway maintenance and / or avalanche conditions, such as mountain passes. It is important to understand that these reports cover those areas specifically and may not reflect the weather conditions at different elevations further along the same highway route.
Q. What does "Current weather data has expired" mean?
A. The Ministry endeavors to collect data from all stations in the network each hour - usually within the first 20 minutes of the hour. Due to the nature of electronic communications in various weather conditions, data from one station or another may drop off if the station cannot be called in that hour. We maintain the "current" data for up to 90 minutes before it is expired from the site.
In addition, the focus of the Avalanche and Weather Program is to provide timely and accurate weather information to its clients through the winter weather season. During the summer, data may not be collected from some stations for longer time frames as this is not our core operational season - though we do the best we can.
Q. Why do the stations sometimes report several millimetres of precipitation in clear weather?
A. The precipitation gauges are susceptible to giving false readings of precipitation caused by thermal expansion / contraction during periods of rapid temperature change. This is particularly noticeable during spring time with cool nights and warm sunny days. Under cloudy skies and when precipitation is occurring, the gauges settle down and produce accurate readings.
Q. What does the term "water equivalent" mean?
A. Weather station instrumentation can detect moisture and amount, but they cannot indicate whether that precipitation is snow, rain, hail, etc. Therefore, the measure is given as a "water equivalent" -- the depth of water in mm that would result from melting the accumulated precipitation.
Q. What does RWS and RAWS mean?
1. RWS - Road Weather Station - These reports are used in this web site.
2. RAWS - Remote Avalanche Weather Station - Only a select few of these reports are used (where they are in close proximity to a highway.)
Q. Why does the B.C. Ministry of Transportation have weather stations?
A. The Ministry of Transportation operates a network of weather stations to collect data that assists in decision making for Highway Maintenance and for Avalanche Forecasting. In addition, this data is used by weather forecasting agencies including Environment Canada to verify their forecasts and continually improve the forecasts' accuracy. Stations are located on the highway network where the effects of winter weather can be problematic for maintenance and / or avalanche considerations.
Q. Why are there not more weather stations on the highway network?
A. The ministry's weather network is sufficient to address current highway maintenance and avalanche safety concerns. There are a few known gaps in the network where stations will be installed over the next few years. One of the constraints is the availability of communications infrastructure for retrieval of data from the stations. As cellular coverage increases in remote areas of the Province, stations will be installed to fill in these gaps.
Q. Why are some stations only reporting precipitation and temperatures and other reporting more information?
A. The weather station network is set up to address the local concern at the site. Some of the stations provide data for road maintenance purposes and other provide data for avalanche forecasting. Consideration of the primary user group for the data from each station determines the allocation of sensors at that station.
Q. Where can I learn more about what the Ministry of Transportation's avalanche and weather technicians do?
A. Visit the Avalanche and Weather Programs web site.
About Route Forecasts
Q. What are Route Forecasts, and why are they important to me?
A. Route forecasts give you weather forecast information along a specified route, as it traverses various B.C. weather regions and high-pass areas. When you call up one of these reports, be sure to read about all the regions and high-pass areas you may be passing through.
B.C weather region borders are defined by Environment Canada, and are different than B.C. Ministry of Transportation districts and regions. Each weather region has unique features and terrain that will make it unique to the other weather regions adjacent to it. B.C.'s roads and highways can pass through a number of these regions so it is important that motorists prepare themselves for all the conditions they may encounter along the way.
Q. What is a "high-pass" report?
A. This is a report on a portion of highway route that passes through an area of higher elevation.. It can vary between a single summit, or a lengthy mountainous area.
Q. I don't see an icon on the map for high-pass reports. Where do I find them?
A. High-pass reports are included in the Route Forecasts, however not all route forecasts have high-pass reports associated with them
City/Airport Forecasts
Q. What are City/Airport forecasts, and why are they significant?
A. While Route Forecasts (above) provide important regional weather information along your route, you may also need to know about the weather at your destination. The city forecasts provide that information. These forecasts come directly from Environment Canada WeatherOffice.
Q. How do I get a city forecast?
A. Click on the orange city dots on the map to generate an animated graphic showing current and forecast weather information. Clicking on the icon will take you to the Environment Canada WeatherOffice site, where you can get detailed information about your destination.
System Requirements
The weather application has been created as an embedded Adobe Flash application, but text and PDA version pages are available.
The application has been tested to work using Adobe Flash clients (plugins) that are at least version 8 or newer. Flash clients/plugins are freely available from the Adobe Flash download site.
The application has been tested to work in the following current browsers:
- Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 6 and 7,
- Firefox version 2+,
- Netscape 9, and
- Opera 9.
There are known Flash incompatibilities with earlier versions of Netscape (7.2 in particular) and users of this Netscape version are encouraged to update their browser software.
About Pop-Ups
The Weather application makes use of browser window pop-ups. In order to take full advantage of the service, users are encouraged to allow pop-ups from the domain "th.gov.bc.ca". Please consult your browser's documentation about adjusting your pop-up settings. |
