
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.