weathercan <img src="https://github.com/ropensci/weathercan/raw/main/inst/assets/weathercan_logo.png" align = "right" width = 110/>

<!-- [](https://cran.r-project.org/package=weathercan) [](https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=weathercan) -->

This package makes it easier to search for and download multiple months/years of historical weather data from Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) website.

Bear in mind that these downloads can be fairly large and performing multiple downloads may use up ECCC’s bandwidth unnecessarily. Try to stick to what you need.

For more details and tutorials checkout the weathercan website (or see the development docs)

Check out the Demo weathercan shiny dashboard (html; source)

Installation

You can install weathercan from the rOpenSci r-Universe:

install.packages("weathercan", 
                 repos = c("https://ropensci.r-universe.dev", 
                           "https://cloud.r-project.org"))

View the available vignettes with vignette(package = "weathercan")

View a particular vignette with, for example, vignette("weathercan", package = "weathercan")

General usage

To download data, you first need to know the station_id associated with the station you’re interested in.

Stations

weathercan includes the function stations() which returns a list of stations and their details (including station_id).

head(stations())

## # A tibble: 6 × 17
##   prov  station_name        station_id climate_id WMO_id TC_id   lat   lon  elev tz        interval start   end normals normals_1991_2020 normals_1981_2010
##   <chr> <chr>                    <dbl> <chr>       <dbl> <chr> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <chr>     <chr>    <dbl> <dbl> <lgl>   <lgl>             <lgl>            
## 1 AB    DAYSLAND                  1795 301AR54        NA <NA>   52.9 -112.  689. Etc/GMT+7 day       1908  1922 FALSE   FALSE             FALSE            
## 2 AB    DAYSLAND                  1795 301AR54        NA <NA>   52.9 -112.  689. Etc/GMT+7 hour        NA    NA FALSE   FALSE             FALSE            
## 3 AB    DAYSLAND                  1795 301AR54        NA <NA>   52.9 -112.  689. Etc/GMT+7 month     1908  1922 FALSE   FALSE             FALSE            
## 4 AB    EDMONTON CORONATION       1796 301BK03        NA <NA>   53.6 -114.  671. Etc/GMT+7 day       1978  1979 FALSE   FALSE             FALSE            
## 5 AB    EDMONTON CORONATION       1796 301BK03        NA <NA>   53.6 -114.  671. Etc/GMT+7 hour        NA    NA FALSE   FALSE             FALSE            
## 6 AB    EDMONTON CORONATION       1796 301BK03        NA <NA>   53.6 -114.  671. Etc/GMT+7 month     1978  1979 FALSE   FALSE             FALSE            
## # ℹ 1 more variable: normals_1971_2000 <lgl>

glimpse(stations())

## Rows: 26,445
## Columns: 17
## $ prov              <chr> "AB", "AB", "AB", "AB", "AB", "AB", "AB", "AB", "AB", "AB", "AB", "AB", "AB", "AB", "AB", "AB", "AB", "AB", "AB", "AB", "AB", "AB", …
## $ station_name      <chr> "DAYSLAND", "DAYSLAND", "DAYSLAND", "EDMONTON CORONATION", "EDMONTON CORONATION", "EDMONTON CORONATION", "FLEET", "FLEET", "FLEET", …
## $ station_id        <dbl> 1795, 1795, 1795, 1796, 1796, 1796, 1797, 1797, 1797, 1798, 1798, 1798, 1799, 1799, 1799, 1800, 1800, 1800, 1801, 1801, 1801, 1802, …
## $ climate_id        <chr> "301AR54", "301AR54", "301AR54", "301BK03", "301BK03", "301BK03", "301B6L0", "301B6L0", "301B6L0", "301B8LR", "301B8LR", "301B8LR", …
## $ WMO_id            <dbl> NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, …
## $ TC_id             <chr> NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, NA, …
## $ lat               <dbl> 52.87, 52.87, 52.87, 53.57, 53.57, 53.57, 52.15, 52.15, 52.15, 53.20, 53.20, 53.20, 52.40, 52.40, 52.40, 54.08, 54.08, 54.08, 53.52,…
## $ lon               <dbl> -112.28, -112.28, -112.28, -113.57, -113.57, -113.57, -111.73, -111.73, -111.73, -110.15, -110.15, -110.15, -115.20, -115.20, -115.2…
## $ elev              <dbl> 688.8, 688.8, 688.8, 670.6, 670.6, 670.6, 838.2, 838.2, 838.2, 640.0, 640.0, 640.0, 1036.0, 1036.0, 1036.0, 585.2, 585.2, 585.2, 668…
## $ tz                <chr> "Etc/GMT+7", "Etc/GMT+7", "Etc/GMT+7", "Etc/GMT+7", "Etc/GMT+7", "Etc/GMT+7", "Etc/GMT+7", "Etc/GMT+7", "Etc/GMT+7", "Etc/GMT+7", "E…
## $ interval          <chr> "day", "hour", "month", "day", "hour", "month", "day", "hour", "month", "day", "hour", "month", "day", "hour", "month", "day", "hour…
## $ start             <dbl> 1908, NA, 1908, 1978, NA, 1978, 1987, NA, 1987, 1987, NA, 1987, 1980, NA, 1980, 1980, NA, 1980, 1986, NA, 1986, 1987, NA, 1987, 1986…
## $ end               <dbl> 1922, NA, 1922, 1979, NA, 1979, 1990, NA, 1990, 1998, NA, 1998, 2009, NA, 2007, 1981, NA, 1981, 2019, NA, 2007, 1991, NA, 1991, 1995…
## $ normals           <lgl> FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, TRUE, TRUE, TRUE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, TRUE, TRU…
## $ normals_1991_2020 <lgl> FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE,…
## $ normals_1981_2010 <lgl> FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, TRUE, TRUE, TRUE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, TRUE, TRU…
## $ normals_1971_2000 <lgl> FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE, FALSE,…

You can look through this data frame directly, or you can use the stations_search function:

stations_search("Kamloops", interval = "hour")

## # A tibble: 3 × 17
##   prov  station_name station_id climate_id WMO_id TC_id   lat   lon  elev tz        interval start   end normals normals_1991_2020 normals_1981_2010
##   <chr> <chr>             <dbl> <chr>       <dbl> <chr> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <chr>     <chr>    <dbl> <dbl> <lgl>   <lgl>             <lgl>            
## 1 BC    KAMLOOPS A         1275 1163780     71887 YKA    50.7 -120.  345. Etc/GMT+8 hour      1953  2013 TRUE    TRUE              TRUE             
## 2 BC    KAMLOOPS A        51423 1163781     71887 YKA    50.7 -120.  345. Etc/GMT+8 hour      2013  2025 TRUE    TRUE              FALSE            
## 3 BC    KAMLOOPS AUT      42203 1163842     71741 ZKA    50.7 -120.  345  Etc/GMT+8 hour      2006  2025 TRUE    TRUE              FALSE            
## # ℹ 1 more variable: normals_1971_2000 <lgl>

Time frame must be one of “hour”, “day”, or “month”.

You can also search by proximity:

stations_search(coords = c(50.667492, -120.329049), dist = 20, interval = "hour")

## # A tibble: 3 × 18
##   prov  station_name station_id climate_id WMO_id TC_id   lat   lon  elev tz        interval start   end normals normals_1991_2020 normals_1981_2010
##   <chr> <chr>             <dbl> <chr>       <dbl> <chr> <dbl> <dbl> <dbl> <chr>     <chr>    <dbl> <dbl> <lgl>   <lgl>             <lgl>            
## 1 BC    KAMLOOPS A         1275 1163780     71887 YKA    50.7 -120.  345. Etc/GMT+8 hour      1953  2013 TRUE    TRUE              TRUE             
## 2 BC    KAMLOOPS AUT      42203 1163842     71741 ZKA    50.7 -120.  345  Etc/GMT+8 hour      2006  2025 TRUE    TRUE              FALSE            
## 3 BC    KAMLOOPS A        51423 1163781     71887 YKA    50.7 -120.  345. Etc/GMT+8 hour      2013  2025 TRUE    TRUE              FALSE            
## # ℹ 2 more variables: normals_1971_2000 <lgl>, distance <dbl>

You can update this list of stations with

stations_dl()

## According to Environment Canada, Modified Date: 2025-07-01 23:30 UTC

## Environment Canada Disclaimers:
## "Station Inventory Disclaimer: Please note that this inventory list is a snapshot of stations on our website as of the modified date, and may be subject to change without notice."
## "Station ID Disclaimer: Station IDs are an internal index numbering system and may be subject to change without notice."

## Stations data saved...
## Use `stations()` to access most recent version and `stations_meta()` to see when this was last updated

And check when it was last updated with

stations_meta()

## $ECCC_modified
## [1] "2025-07-01 23:30:00 UTC"
## 
## $weathercan_modified
## [1] "2025-07-25"

Note: For reproducibility, if you are using the stations list to gather your data, it can be a good idea to take note of the