History

History of the Station

Meteorological observations were first taken at or near Saskatoon by the Royal Northwest Mounted Police in 1889 with temperature only being recorded. There is some disagreement in the early records as to the exact location of the weather observing point, but the majority of the evidence indicates 52°15’N, 106°20’W, elevation 480m above sea level as the most probable location.  This would place it at Clark’s Crossing on the South Saskatchewan River, approximately 16 km northeast of the centre of the City of Saskatoon.  There was a settlement at Clark’s Crossing at that time as well as 10 to 15 families on either side of the river where Saskatoon is now located.

Little is known about the very early observers; however, the records do show that Major T.H. Keenan took observations from March 1892 until March 1895, and Mr. George Will was the observer from January 1897 until April 1897.  It is thought that T. H. Copeland was involved in the observational program from 1895 to May 1, 1901, at which time it was taken over by Mr. Eby, Sr.  Mr. Eby, Sr. recorded the observations until his death in 1921, at which time his daughter, Miss E.S. Eby, continued to record the observations.  Her brother, Mr. J.M. Eby, recorded the observations beginning in April 1931 until the station was closed October 31, 1942.  The Eby station recorded temperature, precipitation and weather notes on fog, thunderstorms, winds and any unusual weather phenomena.  Reports were made twice daily, morning and evening.

In 1916, a climatological station was established by the Physics Department of the University of Saskatchewan and continuous observations were kept twice daily until January 15, 1965.  The longtime observer  was Mr. Sidney Cox.  The Saskatchewan Research Council took over the programme in the fall of 1963 at the newly established Climatological Reference Station at latitude 52°09’N, longitude 106°36’W and elevation 497 m asl1.  The first observer was Terry Beck followed three years later by Orville Olm.2  In 1967, Joe Calvert became the primary observer until his retirement in 1983.  Ray Begrand succeeded Mr. Calvert until 1988 when Virginia Wittrock became the primary observer.  Since 1992, the primary observer has been Carol Beaulieu assisted by Virginia Wittrock, Leanne Crone and Charlene Hudym.

In the summer of 1992, the CRS began to be converted to an automated system of data collection with the installation of a Campbell Scientific data logger and automatic sensors.  Elements presently recorded at the site are temperature, precipitation, wind, solar radiation, relative humidity, barometric pressure, soil temperature and snow-on-the-ground (manual recordings).  Temperature, precipitation and radiation data are submitted to Environment Canada.