The past two decades have seen changes in the availability of Canadian climatic information for design purposes. Probably the most significant benefit has occurred as a result of implementation of the digital national climatological archives at the Canadian Climate Centre, containing about two billion individual meteorological observations covering the period from the early 1950’s to the present. An overview the information available and the services provided for engineering design purposes is presented with emphasis on those areas of interest to ASHRAE engineers.

Other topics discussed include: the organization of the Atmospheric Environment Service of Environment Canada (the Canadian weather service) from the view point of what services and information are provided; national codes and standards setting agencies from which climatic design information is available; the role of the private sector meteorological consultants in Canada; and finally, current technical issues in the use of climatic information for engineering purposes.

Units: Dual