Canwarn

CANWARN, acronym for CANadian Weather Amateur Radio Network, is an organized severe weather spotting and reporting program organized and run by the Meteorological Services Division of Environment Canada. What CANWARN members do is called ground truthing, they confirm and add information to the remote sensing observations of satellites and radar as well as provide information not observable by these technologies.

The program was first theorized by members of the Windsor Amateur Radio Club in Windsor, Ontario in 1986. Randy Mawson VE3TRW, Paul Robertson VE3HFQ, Jerry Beneteau VE3EXT and Bill Leal VE3ES established the original parameters and processes at that time with the first training session held in Windsor during the winter of 1986/1987 at the Windsor Airport, home at the time of the Windsor Weather Office of Environment Canada. Paul VE3HFQ and Bill VE3ES were literally putting the final touches on the station (VE3YQG) located at the Windsor Weather Office in early April 1987 when the very first CANWARN net was called to order. A report of a tornado in south east Michigan on a path towards Essex County was relayed to Environment Canada's severe weather desk in Toronto, Ontario.