Real time weather alerts via Twitter will ensure Canadians are up-to-date and increase public safety
MONTREAL, July 14, 2015 /CNW/ - The Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of the Environment, Minister of the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency and Minister for the Arctic Council, joined by Jacques Gourde, Member of Parliament for Lotbinière — Chutes-de-la-Chaudière, today announced that Canadians can now receive Environment Canada's weather alerts directly on their mobile device or computer via Twitter.
This new automated weather alert messaging service using Twitter is based on information issued by Environment Canada's meteorologists whenever dangerous weather conditions threaten. People increasingly get their news through Twitter; disseminating weather alerts through technology that Canadians use will improve their ability to stay up-to-date on breaking weather information. Canadians can select which communities they want to follow and every time an alert is issued, or ended, a tweet will automatically be sent out.
Over 830 communities appearing on Canada.ca/weather are linked to a Twitter account, one French and one English, which can be followed by Twitter users. Weather alert tweets will be sent to your selected regions of interest 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Quick Facts
- An annual average of 25,000 alerts is expected to be tweeted in total for all communities served by the new system.
- Each year, Environment Canada issues on average 1.5 million public forecasts, 500,000 aviation forecasts, and 200,000 marine, ice and sea state forecasts.
- In January, the Government of Canada announced a $134 million investment to improve the quality of weather forecasts and weather warnings to Canadians.
- Economic Action Plan 2013 included $248 million over five years to improve federal infrastructure, such as radars, and surface weather and climate monitoring stations, which are the backbone of Canada's severe weather warning service.
- With over 50 million visits per month, Canada.ca/weather is the most visited Government of Canada website.
Quotes
"Our Government is committed to ensuring Canadians have a weather forecasting system they can rely on to give them timely and accurate information. As more Canadians are using social media to stay informed, this new service will play an essential role in ensuring public safety by providing Canadians with expanded access to severe weather information."
– The Honourable Leona Aglukkaq, Minister of the Environment, Minister of the Canadian Northern Economic Development Agency and Minister for the Arctic Council
"With more Canadians using social media to stay informed, our Government has launched a new weather-alert system to provide timely, consistent weather information to targeted local followers on Twitter. This weather-alert service will play an essential role in strengthening public safety and provide Canadians with greater access to timely, location-specific weather information."
– Jacques Gourde, Member of Parliament for Lotbinière — Chutes-de-la-Chaudière
"We are happy to have played a role to developing this unique way of sharing weather alerts with Canadians. Our work has resulted in a tool that allows more Canadians, media, businesses, municipalities and emergency organizations to have access to timely and location-specific severe weather information via Twitter."
– Steve Ladurantaye, Head of government partnerships, Twitter Canada
Related Product
Environment Canada's Twitter page
Environment Canada's Facebook page
SOURCE Environment Canada
Ted Laking, Director of Communications, Office of the Minister of the Environment, 819-997-1441; Media Relations, Environment Canada, 819-934-8008
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