Inside Shields Weather...

Shields Weather's forecast office is located in the Algoma District, on St. Joseph Island, 40km southeast of the city of Sault Ste Marie. Shields Weather's first site, SooWeather.com, has proven to provide the most accurate forecasts in the Sault-Algoma region. The secret to the successful track record is to constantly review current weather conditions and blend those actual conditions with the latest forecast models from around the world. Then, with this latest information, current forecasts are verified or adjusted as needed. This is the biggest difference between ShieldsWeather.com forecasts and mainstream public forecasts; we make sure our information is current and make changes if the weather changes. The 36 hour forecasts are updated at least 4 times a day and often more during severe weather.  The goal of Shields Weather is to ensure that our site is up-to-date and accurate. If a forecast is off because of something unexpected we immediately make the adjustments and inform the viewer of what has changed and how it will impact the forecast.

Shields Weather makes use of the latest weather technologies.  We are connected to the internet via the latest Satellite high speed transmitter.  Every several minutes the latest radar imagery is broadcast from ShieldsWeather.com to our radar page.  From that satellite connection we also download the latest satellite images of visible cloud cover, infrared cloud cover and water vapour.  That combined with the latest hourly data, from thousands of stations from across North America, helps generate a clear picture of what current weather conditions exist.

Forecast models play a key role in providing weather forecasts in the meteorological community.  Here at Shields Weather we make use of many different forecast models from the National Weather Center in the U.S., the European Weather Forecast Models and the Canadian Forecast Model (GEM) produced by Environment Canada.  Without bias we choose the best forecast models for each weather scenario and combine that with local experience and conditions to generate a forecast that is made for the Sault region, generated in the Sault Region.

Here at the Shields Weather forecast center we maintain a automated forecast station.  This station records all the latest weather conditions on St. Joseph Island and uploads that information to our website every 15 minutes of everyday.  This weather station data is collected and is often used to verify local conditions that often differ from those at the nearest government recording station in the city of Sault Ste Marie.  The data is often used by Environment Canada to verify severe weather bulletins and has been used on several occasions to help issued severe public weather warnings.

Shields Weather has operated SooWeather.com for years and has now expanded into the Elliot Lake and Manitoulin regions with ElliotLakeWeaether.com and ManitoulinWeather.com.  Our goal is to reach as many people who enjoy the weather and have a need to know accurate weather forecasts in and around the north.  With time we hope to expand into more of Northern Ontario and provide the best weather coverage available.

For comments and questions please feel free to contact Jerry Shields as this email address.