Will weather wreck your weekend? New Environment Canada web tool aims to give earlier warnings on storms

Worried about summer storms drenching your weekend plans?

Environment Canada offersaheads up in the summer through storm watches and warnings, but the agency is testing a new online tool designed to givemore notice about bad weather on the prairies, like the wind storm that tore through Red Deer, Alta., early this week.

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The testwebsite, designed for emergency planners but available to anyone,offers24 to 48 hours notice about impending storms, said Dan Kulak, an Edmonton-based warning preparedness meteorologist with Environment Canada.

"The new product we have out right now is what we call an experimental product, but it's still in the public domain. It's being hosted by the University of Manitoba'swebsitethey are one of our academic partners with weather forecasting. It just gives a picture of where we expect potential for significant storms across the prairie provinces over the next couple of days," he told the Calgary Eyeopener.

Environment Canada already sends outweather watchesabout six hours in advance of a storm, as well as issues warnings when bad weather, or a tornado, is imminent.

'Technology has made us a little bit vulnerable'

The perception that June weather in southern Alberta is getting more and more unpredictable has a lot to do with technology, he said.

"When somebody sees something, it's on social media in five minutes, quite often. Fifteen years ago we were lucky to hear about it the next day. I think there's a perception that weather has become very volatile because we hear so much about it. But at the same time you just have to look at the stats and take a calm, rationalized approach to it."

Despite all the online tools at our fingertips, it's important take a look out the window, Kulak said.

"I think technology has made us a little bit vulnerable because we've forgotten what to look for in the sky for ourselves. We look on our smart phone and if there's no warning, we don't do anything," he said.

"We've forgotten to look up into the sky and say, 'Hey, that looks like a developing storm. I should maybe put some things away [and] gather up the kids.'"

With files from the Calgary Eyeopener

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