Weather, Eh?: Enhancing International Collaboration by a Student Assistant Exchange between the Meteorology Service of Canada and the U.S. National Weather Service

The United States and Canada are divided by a 5,500 mile/8,800 kilometer border; however, weather often affects the citizens and economies of both nations without regard to an arbitrary line. The United States National Weather Service (NWS) and the Meteorological Service of Canada (MSC) recently exchanged student assistants through grants from their respective parent universities in order to share operational research and forecasting methods so international collaboration could be enhanced between the weather forecast offices/centres in both countries. This poster will examine the differences both students uncovered and highlight the new understandings they achieved between government forecasters on both sides of the US/Canadian border. The students found many differences between the NWS and MSC, including: spatial coverage, accessibility to the public, software use, and severe weather definitions and warning procedures of weather forecasting offices/centres. Additionally, they discovered that MSC meteorologists frequently consult the NWS Storm Prediction Center’s analysis when crafting severe convection forecasts, while NWS meteorologists often utilize MSC weather models and ice forecasts every winter. The students also found that each nation’s weather agency had very different official stances on climate change likely governed by each nation’s current politics. Both the NWS and MSC used similar social media templates, but the MSC had the added requirement of being bilingual in both official languages of English and French for all published content which presents a unique set of challenges. This project has resulted in reciprocal social media monitoring of weather forecast offices/centres in both countries and other modes of international collaboration.