Mr Weather Laurentians | The Press

The snow has been capricious at the start of winter. Big broadsides. An almost complete disappearance in the south of the province. A more or less successful return. Éric Chatigny had a job.

Éric Chatigny is a high school English teacher in Mont-Tremblant. He is also an amateur meteorologist who spends hours consulting data and models to concoct his own forecasts for the Laurentians and the province’s ski resorts. It feeds its website, meteolaurentides. com, in addition to collaborating with the Zone site. Skiing and the Laurentian radio station CIME.

“Meteorology has always been a passion for me,” he says. I was 5 years old, I knew that was what I wanted to do with my life. I am originally from Île d’Orléans. We had a good view of Quebec and since the systems always move from west to east, we often saw the weather phenomena coming from the city towards us. »

He therefore started a bachelor’s degree in meteorology at McGill, which he abandoned on the way. “I didn’t like Montreal. In the big city, I was not very happy. And then, meteorology is a field where there is a lot of physics, chemistry, mathematics. I found it quite strenuous. I reoriented myself to teach English, which I have been doing for 23 years. »

However, he continued to acquire knowledge of meteorology on his own. “With the Internet, we have had more and more access to weather models and satellite radar data. »

Particularities of the region

And when he settled in the Laurentians, he noticed that the forecasts of major players such as Environment Canada and MétéoMédia were not always accurate, in particular due to the topography of the region. There is a big difference between what happens in the valleys and on the mountains. There are also topographic features that give certain regions of the Laurentians their own climate, such as the famous snowbelt (snow zone), which includes Sainte-Agathe, Val-David, Val-Morin, Morin-Heights and Sainte-Marguerite.

He notes that meteorology relies more and more on automation: models capture data and produce forecasts. Flesh and blood meteorologists, if they intervene, do so at the end of the process to adapt the forecasts.

There are several weather models. They have been developed in different regions, but they take into consideration the weather over the entire surface of the globe. In Canada, unsurprisingly, the Canadian model is used.

“What makes my site special is that I analyze several data, several models, in particular the European model, which is more effective than the Canadian one,” says Mr. Chatigny. It is a 100% human process. »

It checks the data almost continuously during the day. “I’m pretty much always on the lookout. Writing my bulletins, my potentially dangerous weather card, it can take an hour in the morning. When there is more significant weather, it may take another hour in the evening. »

One must for skiers

Mr. Chatigny is a skier. He therefore pays particular attention to snow accumulations and the type of snow that falls. “Models will generally infer accumulation from water equivalent. Often, we will say that one millimeter of precipitation will give one centimeter of snow. But it’s an average, it’s always a little more or a little less, it depends on the atmospheric conditions. I take it into account in my predictions. »

Éric Chatigny has developed an introductory winter weather course for alpine ski touring enthusiasts. The objective is to give them the tools they need to better plan their outings based on official forecasts or even on their own reading of weather models. Basically, it’s about taking advantage of every snowflake that comes along.