Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada

Last Spring Frost (-2 °C) is defined as the average day, during the first half of the year, of the last occurrence of a minimum temperature at or below -2 °C. These values are calculated across Canada in 10x10 km cells.

Last Spring Frost (0 °C) is defined as the average day, during the first half of the year, of the last occurrence of a minimum temperature at or below 0 °C. These values are calculated across Canada in 10x10 km cells.

Crop/Corn Heat Units (CHU) is a temperature-based index often used by farmers and agricultural researchers to estimate whether the climate is warm enough to grow corn. Daily crop heat units are calculated from minimum and maximum temperatures with separate calculations for day and night. The...

Growing Degree Days (GDDs) are used to estimate the growth and development of plants and insects during the growing season. Insect and plant development are very dependent on temperature and the daily accumulation of heat. The amount of heat required to move a plant or pest to the next...

First Fall Frost (-2 °C) is defined as the average day of the second half of the year with the first occurrence of the minimum temperature of a climate day which is at or below -2 °C. These values are calculated across Canada in 10x10 km cells.

Monthly 30-year Average Maximum Temperature represents the average monthly maximum temperature calculated for a given location averaged across a 30 year period (1961-1991, 1971-2000, 1981-2010, 1991-2020). These values are calculated across Canada in 10x10 km cells.

Frost Day Count (0 °C) is defined as the number of days in a calendar month where the minimum daily temperature for the climate day was at or below 0 °C. These values are calculated across Canada in 10x10 km cells.

Growing Degree Days (GDDs) are used to estimate the growth and development of plants and insects during the growing season. Insect and plant development are very dependent on temperature and the daily accumulation of heat. The amount of heat required to move a plant or pest to the next...

Frost Day Count (-2 °C) is defined as the count of the number of days in a calendar month where the minimum daily temperature for the climate day was at or below -2 °C. These values are calculated across Canada in 10x10 km cells.

The “Soil Landscapes of Canada (SLC) Version 2.2” dataset series provides a set of geo-referenced soil areas (polygons) that are linked to attribute data found in the associated Component Table (CMP), Landscape Table (LAT), Carbon Layer Table (CLYR), and Dom/Sub File (DOM_SUB). Together, these...

Agriculture is an important primary production sector in Canada. Agricultural production, profitability, sustainability and food security depend on many agrometeorological factors, including drought. The Canadian Drought Outlook predicts whether drought across Canada will emerge, stay the same...

Minimum Temperature represents the lowest recorded temperature value (°C) at each location for a given time period. Time periods include the previous 24 hours and the previous 7 days from the available date where a climate day starts at 0600UTC.

The term "Palmer Drought Index" has been used collectively to represent multiple indices. This index is simply a water balance model which analyzes precipitation and temperature, and used as a tool to measure meteorological and hydrological drought across space and time. All versions of the...

Crop Heat Units (CHU) are calculated on a daily basis, using the maximum and minimum temperatures in order to account for a crop’s negative response to higher temperatures. The formula used to calculate the CHU value for a day is: (1.8 × (Minimum Temperature − 4.4) + 3.33 × (Maximum...

Dry spell periods are defined as the number of days (April 1 – October 31) where daily precipitation is less than 0.5 mm. This is not an accumulation of precipitation, simply a count of days. Dry spell products are only generated during the Growing Season, April 1 through October 31.

Percent of Average Precipitation represents the accumulation of precipitation for a location, divided by the long term average value. The long term average value is defined as the average amount over the 1981 – 2010 period. Products are produced for the following timeframes: Agricultural Year,...

Heat Wave represents the consecutive number of days (April 1 – October 31) where the maximum daily temperature is greater than 25 or 30 degrees respectively. Heat wave products are only generated during the Growing Season, April 1 through October 31.

Growing degree days (GDDs) are used to estimate the growth and development of plants and insects during the growing season. Growing Degree Day are computed by subtracting a base value temperature from the mean daily temperature and are assigned a value of zero if negative. Base temperatures are a...

Mean Temperature Difference From Normal values are computed by subtracting the normal monthly average temperature from the average monthly temperature of the month. The average monthly temperature is computed by obtaining the mean value of average daily temperatures for a month. If the month was...

The Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) is computed similarly to the SPI. The main difference is that SPI assesses precipitation variance, while SPEI also considers demand from evapotranspiration which is subtracted from any precipitation accumulation prior to assessment....