A brief history of meteorological services in Canada part 3: 1939–1945

Abstract

Abstract When the concerns of the Meteorological Division turned from peace to war in 1939–40 the Division was in the midst of a major expansion to meet the needs of Trans‐Canada Airlines. Civil air requirements for meteorological services continued to increase, and to these were‐added the meteorological needs of the Royal Canadian Air Force for operations and for the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan, the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force for their ferrying activities over the Atlantic Ocean and to Alaska, and the much smaller needs of the Royal Canadian Navy and the Canadian Army. By developing an analysis and forecasting system based on several forecast centres previously planned for civilian aviation, by setting up still more forecast centres for military purposes and by staffing nearly 100 “dependent” forecast offices at training and operational military stations, the wartime meteorological needs in Canada were largely met, although in northern Canada the United States assisted by establishing many observing stations and some forecast offices. To do this it was necessary for Canada's national service to recruit and train 350 new meteorologists and a large number of assistants during a period of extensive manpower scarcity. Services to the public were greatly curtailed and for a period both the broadcasting and publishing of weather information were prohibited. At the end of the war the Meteorological Division was faced with the major task of reorganizing in order to provide, to the public, services commensurate with the wartime advances in meteorological theory and practice.