The Canadian Severe Storms Laboratory (CSSL) was founded in 2024 as a partnership between Western University and social impact fund ImpactWX, beginning a new era in severe storms research in Canada and strengthening Canada’s reputation globally as a leader in the field.
The CSSL is the authoritative source for Canadian severe convective storms data and research. Projects under the CSSL umbrellla include the Northern Tornadoes Project, the Northern Hail Project and the new Northern Mesonet Project. We undertake the collection of data, documentation of events, and pursuit of research that enhances our understanding of severe convective storms and their impacts, and allows the development of innovative techniques and tools.
The CSSL develops climatologies of warm-season severe weather (tornadoes, downbursts / derechos, damaging hail, flash floods) that inform risk analysis and community resiliency, improving the safety and well-being of Canadians. We also make our data and analyses freely available to both decision makers and the public, and participate in various outreach activities, in order to increase awareness and spark innovation.
Other CSSL partners include the Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction and the WindEEE Research Institute. CSSL also closely collaborates with Environment and Climate Change Canada and researchers at various Canadian and international institutions.
The CSSL is committed to open data and open science. We are working to make our data available to the public as soon as possible after collection and processing. We are also working to make our data as accessible as possible to the public, including through the use of interactive maps and visualizations.
Survey data is available through the NTP Open Data site.
