Portraits climatiques, the leading platform for viewing and analyzing climate projections for Quebec, has just reached a new milestone. Already recognized for its role in supporting informed decision-making, the tool has been enhanced with several new features, both in terms of data offerings and analysis tools.
These improvements, which mainly concern indicators related to snow cover and the visualization of the statistical robustness of change for all available indicators, enable us to better serve sectors such as winter tourism, municipalities, mining companies, water management, etc.
" Ground snow indicators have been specifically targeted to provide a detailed analysis of snow cover in future climates, made possible by the capabilities of regional climate models, including the one used at Ouranos. As an added bonus, new visualization options make it possible to explore all of our data in a more intuitive way," explains Diane Chaumont, Scientific Information Integration Manager for Climate Portraits.
These additions fit seamlessly into the current offering, ensuring that the history and data already available on the platform remain intact and accessible.
With these new features, Climate Portraits reaffirms its position as an indispensable tool for all stakeholders seeking to adapt effectively to climate change.
A portrait of changes in snow cover
In order to better document changes in winter conditions, Climate Portraits now includes five indicators related to snow cover :
• Maximum water equivalent of snow on the ground
• Number of days without snow cover
• Start and end dates and duration of the continuous snow cover season
This data will provide a better understanding of the rapid changes related to snow cover and allow for more effective integration of these issues into adaptation strategies.
A more informative and complementary reading of projected changes.
A more informative and complementary reading of projected changes
Visualization options previously reserved for freezing rain data are now available for all indicators:
View by global warming levels, highlighting the benefits of GHG reduction efforts.
Characterization of the statistical robustness of the climate change signal for each indicator, identifying areas where projections disagree on the direction of climate change.
Percentage deltas: to more easily put the magnitude of changes into perspective
The ability to obtain deltas (changes between the future period and the reference period) as percentages has been added for a wide range of indicators, including:
• Accumulated precipitation
• Maximum short-term precipitation
• Growing degree days
• Heating degree days
• Cooling degree days
• Freezing degree days
• Frost-free degree days
• Freezing rain hours
• Maximum snow cover
These representations make it easier to compare the reference period and the future period and thus understand the relative magnitude of the changes.
The new visualization options and percentage deltas are available in the advanced options of the “Map” and “Table” views.
