Data Resources

Streamflow Data

• Water Survey of Canada
  Historical and real-time water level and streamflow data. Upstream basin polygons here
• For provincial streamflow data, see Provincial Data and Data Tools below

Meteorological Data (measured)

• MSC Historical Climate Data
  Historical hourly and daily gauge and radar meteorological data (web download month-by-month- for hourly data or year-by-year for daily data).
  • For downloading in bulk, try using the MSCr R package
  • For visualization of data in space and time, try Green Kenue or the
    Environment Canada Data Explorer
• ECCC Adjusted Daily Rainfall/Snowfall data (AdjDlyRS)
  Historical daily data corrected for SWE, gauge undercatch, and trace precipitation. Corrects historical underestimation of total precipitation on the Canadian Open Data Portal.
• Alberta Climate Information Service
  Provincial data source in Alberta

Meteorological Data (simulated/downscaled)

• Canadian Precipitation Analysis (CaPa)
  Model-interpolated climate data generated from RDPS combined with gauge and radar data
• Canadian Meteorological Centre’s Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models
  Regional (RDPS), Global (GDPS), North American Ensemble (NAEFS) and seasonal forecasts in GRIB format.
• CaSPAr – Canadian Surface Prediction Archive data portal
  Historical ECCC regional climate prediction archives, available in NetCDF format
• ClimateNA_MAP
  North America-wide downscaled GCM climate data; monthly estimated variables from 1901-2010.
• PCIC Downscaled GCMS
  Canada-wide downscaled GCM climate data from the Pacific Climate Impacts Consortium (PCIC). Daily precip and min/max temperature in NetCDF or ASCII format for multiple scenarios.
• Daymet
  1km x 1km gridded daily weather and climatological variables over North America from 1980-present; point and gridded downloads.

Terrain Data

• Canadian Digital Elevation Model (CDEM) [preferred over CDED data]
  Canadian national elevation data product
• Canada Digital Elevation Data (CDED)
  Canadian national elevation data product
• Arctic DEM
  High resolution (5-m or better) digital elevation model data north of 60 latitude
• HydroSHEDS
  Global hydrologically-conditioned digital elevation models south of 60 latitude at 3 arc-second resolution.
• MERIT DEM
  Global hydrologically-conditioned digital elevation models south of 65 latitude at 3 arc-second resolution.
• CanElevation High-resolution DEMs
  1-2m resolution digital elevation models generated from LIDAR over selected portions of Canada.

Provincial Data and Data Tools

• rivers.alberta.ca
  Streamflow, level, and snow depth data across Alberta provided by Alberta Environment and Parks
• BC Water Tool
  Streamflow, level, water quality, and climate data across Southern British Columbia developed by BC Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development.
• Manitoba Hydro Hydrological Data Portal
  Real-time streamflow and water level data across Manitoba
• Manitoba Infrastructure Water Information
  Real-time flood warning data for Manitoba, plus historical floodway control structure operations
• Ontario Integrated Hydrology Data
  Harmonized Ontario Hydro Network-National Hydro Network stream and water body vector coverage with hydrologically corrected DEM and flow direction raster data for the province of Ontario.
• Ontario Flow Assessment Tool (OFAT)
  Online map-based tool which creates watersheds, calculates watershed characteristics, executes simple hydrology models and reports water flow statistics.
• Centre d’expertise hydrique du Québec (CEHQ) Hydrometric Data
  Water level, streamflow, and real-time forecasts across the province of Québec.

Other Datasets

• CANOPEX – Canadian hydrometeorological watershed database
  Canada-wide database of 698 natural watersheds with 20+ years of record (streamflow and met data) for model intercomparison and assessment
• Polar Data Catalogue
  Extensive database of Arctic and Antarctic physical and political data; includes numerous snow and ice cover datasets
• National Dataset of Streamflow Isotopes across Canada
  Open-access dataset of 18O and 2H streamflow isotope measurements at 331 gauging stations across Canada from 2013 to 2019.