Weatheradio Canada

In 1976, Environment Canada's Weatheradio service was launched and expanded to 30 locations in roughly 10 years. In the early-1990s, increased government investment permitted major expansion of the network to the present size of 230 sites.

In most locations, the service broadcasts on one of seven specially-allocated VHF radio frequencies, audible only on dedicated "weather band" receivers or any VHF radio capable of receiving 10 kHz bandwidth FM signals centred on these assigned channels, which are located within the larger "public service band". The radio frequencies used by Weatheradio Canada were the same as those used by its American counterpart, NOAA Weather Radio (whose parent agency, the U.S. National Weather Service, is also a partner with the Meteorological Service of Canada) ^{[citation needed]} and receivers designed for use in one country are compatible for use in the other. Since 2004, the service has used Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) alerting technology to disseminate severe weather alerts. In the late 2010s, Environment Canada indicated that it would, in the future, add other hazard and civil emergency information (such as natural disasters, technological accidents, Amber alerts and terrorist attacks) to Weatheradio broadcasts.^[2] Such enhancements never came to fruition.

In some locations, primarily national parks, provincial parks and remote communities with little or no local media service, a transmitter operated by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation carried the service on a standard AM or FM broadcast frequency. As of August 2007, most of these AM and FM transmitters were unlicensed by the CRTC under a special license exemption granted to low-power non-commercial broadcasters.^[3]

In September 2020, Environment and Climate Change Canada began soliciting feedback on possible decommissioning of 48 of its 230 transmitters. ECCC stated that the transmitters were predominantly located in areas of overlapping coverage and where alternate methods of access (such as cell phones and the Internet) were available.^[4]

On May 26, 2021, through Required Weekly Tests sent over the network, Environment Canada announced Weatheradio's transition into its new voice technology system. The previous Starcaster voices had been in use for over 27 years.^[5] Among the new voices for the service was Nuance Tom, a newer version of the old NOAA Weather Radio voice used prior to 2016. This transition began on June 1st of that year, and while supposed to end on New Year's Eve of 2021.^[6] Some stations held out into summer 2022 before making the switch.^[7]

On August 19, 2022, an announcement was sent on 8 transmitters in the network regarding the impending decommission of said transmitters within the next 6 months. The 8 transmitters announced for decommissioning were: Cooking Lake, AB; Saskatoon, SK; Orillia, ON; Brockville, ON; Fredericton, NB; Perth-Andover, NB; Aspen-Melrose, NS and Grand Falls, NL.^[4] Of these, Saskatoon and Orillia were spared while the remainder were discontinued.

On February 23, 2026, Environment and Climate Change Canada announced that Weatheradio Canada and Hello Weather would be decommissioned nationwide effective three weeks later on March 16th.^[8] The agency cited rising maintenance costs as the main factor.^[9] Continuous marine broadcasts, operated by the Canadian Coast Guard for maritime interests, remained in service. On March 16th, 2026, Weatheradio Canada broadcast a repeated announcement informing listeners that the service had been discontinued.^[9]

Weatheradio Canada signals were transmitted using FM (10 kHz bandwidth), with band spacing of 25 kHz. These transmittered covered areas in around a 60-kilometer (40-mile) radius; this depends on things like terrain, the quality of the receiver, and the antenna height above ground. It was estimated that 90 per cent of Canadians lived within range of a Weatheradio transmitter.^[4] The service used multiple frequencies:^[10]

• 162.400 MHz
• 162.425 MHz
• 162.450 MHz
• 162.475 MHz
• 162.500 MHz
• 162.525 MHz
• 162.550 MHz

At selected locations, low power broadcasts without the alert tone were transmitted on the regular FM or AM band. A Weatheradio receiver was not required to hear these broadcasts.^[11]

Weather information was broadcast in both official languages (English, then French). Prior to June 2021, broadcasts in Quebec were in the opposite order. The language order became uniform after new systems were installed. Weather alert broadcasts were inserted within the normal playlist. Wind and wave marine forecasts are broadcast on a regular basis on transmitters located near marine zones. However, these and other forms of marine forecasts were more conveniently heard on the Canadian Coast Guard's continuous marine broadcasts, which (except for British Columbia) are not broadcast on weather-band frequencies. Weather broadcasts also included the UV index for the forecast day, and for the following day. The Air Quality Health Index forecast was broadcast at the end of the broadcast cycle for cities in the station's service area.

Whenever a weather or civil emergency alert is issued for any part of a Weatheradio Canada station's coverage area, many radios with an alert feature will sound an alarm or turn on upon detection of a 1,050 Hz attention tone that sounds just before the voice portion of an alert message.^[12] The specification calls for the Weatheradio Canada transmitter to sound the alert tone for ten seconds and for the receiver to react to it within five seconds. This system simply triggers the alarm or turns on the radio of every muted receiver within reception range of that station (in other words, any receiver located anywhere within the transmitter's broadcast area). Generally, receivers with this functionality are either older or basic models.

Many newer or more sophisticated alerting receivers can detect, decode and react to a digital signal called Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME), which allows users to program their radios to receive alerts only for specific geographical areas of interest and concern, rather than for an entire broadcast area. These advanced models may also have colored LED status lights which indicate the level of the alert as an "advisory"/"statement", "watch" or "warning" (either amber or green for advisories and statements, orange or yellow for watches, red for warnings).

When an alert is transmitted, the SAME header/data signal is broadcast first (heard as three repeated audio "bursts"), followed by the 1,050 Hz attention tone (on select alerts), then the voice message, then the end-of-message (EOM) data signal (repeated quickly three times). This encoding/decoding technology has the advantage of avoiding "false alarms" triggered by the 1,050 Hz tone itself in locations outside the intended warning area.^[13]

All Weatheradio Canada transmitters automatically conduct either a Required Weekly Test (RWT), or both a RWT and a Required Monthly Test (RMT).^[14] The test message is typically aired soon after 12:00 PM local time. Unlike RWTs, the RMT messages are accompanied by the 1,050 Hz attention tone after the initial SAME headers.

The test script is read by the female TTS voice as follows:

"Environment Canada has a message to broadcast: This is a required weekly test for [call sign]. I repeat, this is a required weekly test for [call sign]." "Environnement Canada a un message à diffuser: Ceci est un test hebdomadaire obligatoire pour [call sign]. Je répète, ceci est un test hebdomadaire obligatoire pour [call sign]"

• Alert Ready
• Alberta Emergency Alert
• Interagency Volcanic Event Notification Plan
• Forecast region
• NOAA Weather Radio
• Emergency Alert System
• Specific Area Message Encoding