Canadian Hurricane Centre

The Canadian Hurricane Centre (CHC) was created in 1987. It provides Canadians with meteorological information on tropical cyclones that helps them make informed decisions to protect their safety and secure their property.

Originally, the CHC focused mostly on the marine community. Issuing accurate and timely warnings of strong winds and rough seas for the offshore economic zone and major inland waters is critical to ensuring the safety and international competitiveness of Canadian weather-sensitive industries. Marine interests operating in the economic zone are among those industries that need quite a lot of advance notice of impending tropical cyclone activity in order to take protective measures. For this reason, routine marine weather forecasts and warnings need to be supplemented by Canadian hurricane information statements in order to alert marine interests with as much lead time as possible.

In the first year of operating the CHC, however, it became clear that inland interests, including the general public, would benefit greatly from the CHC supplementary information statements. Now, more than 20 years later, our core mandate remains the same: to help protect Canadians, our visitors and property from the impacts of tropical cyclones, whether on land or at sea.

The CHC delivers information in a variety of forms: forecasts, watches and warnings, general information about tropical cyclones and their threats (such as the information that is found on this site), public awareness presentations, stakeholder training, and scientific papers and presentations.

• Canadian Hurricane Centre: responsibilities
• Canadian Hurricane Centre: international conferences, workshops and courses
• Canadian Hurricane Centre: location
• Canadian Hurricane Centre: history
• Canadian Hurricane Centre: staff
• Canadian Hurricane Centre: frequently asked questions
• Canadian Hurricane Centre: glossary
• Canadian hurricane centre: links
• East coast hurricane awareness tour: 2017