ECReader (Environment Canada Climate Data Reader) is a .NET tool to download Canadian climate data from Environment Canada website. It comes from the SWAT modelling project I’m working on. I’m tired of downloading the data from EC website one station after another station, year by year and then processing them into the file format ArcSWAT wants. It’s no fun at all. As a programmer, I rather spend the same time to make a tool to do all these work in just one click. It would also help others too. So, please leave a comment or send me email (hawklorry@gmail.com) if you needs more functions. I would be happy to add it for you. Also please follow me on wordpress or facebook to get notified for any further development.
Program Package
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B16YhFB_9Meja0kxcUQ0eGNoWUk/view?usp=sharing
Screenshot
The main features are list below.
- Download climate data for a bunch of stations with just one click
- A build-in station definition window to help locate stations of interest by name or location.
- Support different output formats including the SWAT-ready dbf/txt format which could be used in ArcSWAT without any post-process (only for precipitation and temperature).
- Support daily and hourly data
- Give a map of all climate stations, which could be used outside the tool. The attribute table gives the station ID, name and the data availability of hourly, daily and monthly data. It’s a good dataset for any research required climate data. It’s available right in the tool and in csv, shapefile and kmz format for different environment.
Several posts have been published on this topic (list below). New functions would be added shortly to help fill the data gaps using nearby stations using IDW (Inverse Distance Weight) method. Lapse rate would also be considered for precipitation and temperature in this process.
December 12, 2013 Environment Canada Climate Data Reader
December 18, 2013 How to Get Environment Canada Climate Station ID From Name
December 28, 2013 Uncompleted Data Bug Fixed, Please Update
December 28, 2013 Environment Canada Climate Stations (Shapefile and KMZ)
December 31, 2013 6 More Columns Added to Environment Canada Climate Stations (Shapefile) to Help Check Data Availability
January 2, 2014 ECRearder 1.1 – New Climate Station Definition Window – No longer need to look up station IDs yourself
January 6, 2014 File Name Convention in ECReader1.1
January 9, 2014 Save and Load Defined Stations in ECReader1.1
Michael Yu 