Environment Canada to end weather radio and telephone services

A Weatheradio to hear the latest weather information from Environment Canada is shown. (Environment Canada)

If you’re used to getting weather information through Environment Canada’s Weatheradio and Hello Weather services, they will soon be taken off the air.

Weatheradio gives Canadians access to weather heard in both English and French through the radio, broadcast across different frequencies within a radius of 60 kilometres.

Specific Weatheradios receivers, while free to operate, need to be purchased and are available through a variety of retailers, according to Environment Canada.

Many communities across the Simcoe-Muskoka region have access to Weatheradio including Collingwood at 162.475, Kawartha Lakes and Orillia at 162.400, and Parry Sound at 88.9 on the FM dial.

Hello Weather is an automated telephone service that gives those same weather updates but instead of changing the dial on your radio, you pick up the phone, dial a toll-free number and enter your location code.

Starting March 16, people will no longer be able to access weather information heard through Weatheradio, but rather the national weather centre is encouraging the public to download the free mobile app or visit the interactive weather map on the website.

The Weatheradio service was launched in 1976 and upgraded in 2004. The upgrade involved Specific Area Message Encoding (SAME) technology which could alert specific areas to extreme weather like tornadoes and storms.

The national weather centre’s official document on Weatheradio states having a receiver or access to a battery-powered radio that transmits Environment Canada’s weather information is “as important as having a smoke detector in your home.”

Radio, generally speaking, can provide much-needed information in emergency situations like a power outage or in places where there’s no internet or wireless connection.