Hello to everyone and welcome to Spring 2011.

While the weather won't be very spring-like in the coming days, it is again time to let everyone know of the dates/venues for this year's CANWARN storm spotter training. 2010 had its share of damaging spring and summer storms that had two significant events…the nocturnal tornadoes and downbursts of June 6 in Southern Essex County (Leamington/Harrow) and the Midland and Washago tornadoes of June 23. Training sessions will again be held across the province and in some locations for the first time as we try to expand the number of watchers in Central and Northeastern Ontario. Randy Mawson will again be doing the training in the Southwest, I'll do the venues in Southcentral Ontario, Peter Kimbell will handle the East and Northeast and Serge Besner will be doing the training in Northwestern Ontario.

Please feel free to pass these dates/venues along to others you think may be interested in coming out for the training. As in previous years, Randy, Peter, Serge and myself will be looking forward to renewing ties with long-time volunteers and welcoming those who are coming out to the training for the first time. As I have stated a number of times over the last few years, CANWARN volunteers continue to be an integral part of Environment Canada's severe weather watch/warning program. I'd like to thank those of you who sent in timely observations of severe weather last season and to those of you who sent or phoned in observations of fog, freezing precipitation and snow accumulations during this past winter. All of these observations are gratefully received by the operational forecasters in the Ontario Storm Prediction Centre.

So without further delay, please find below the dates/venues that have been confirmed so far. Additional dates/venues for Eastern, Northeastern and Northwestern Ontario will be added in coming updates. I'd request again this year if you could RSVP to me which session you plan on attending so I can get a rough ideas for numbers at each venue. Once again, thank you for being part of the CANWARN program and for helping to keep your local communities aware of severe weather.

On a final note, over the years a few people have approached me to hold a Toronto training session during a weekday evening since they can't make Saturday mornings. The main Toronto session will be on Saturday, May 7th but if there is sufficient response to me about an evening session in Toronto as well, I have tentatively set aside Wednesday, May 18th at 7 PM here at our headquarters at 4905 Dufferin St. I will confirm if this Toronto evening session is a go in later training updates.

Geoff Coulson
Warning Preparedness Meteorologist |  Météorologue de sensibilisation aux conditions menaçantes
Ontario Region Client Services | Service à la clientèle, Région de l'Ontario
Environment Canada | Environnement Canada
Government of Canada | Gouvernement du Canada
4905 Dufferin St | 4905 rue Dufferin
Toronto, ON M3H 5T4

[email protected]

Sent by Ward VE3WGK E-mail: [email protected]