Climate Data Gap Filling Project

Climate records (precipitation and temperature) frequently have missing data throughout their period of record. These gaps may be short term in nature (over a number of days due to equipment malfunction), or long term (over a period of years, due to station closures).  Daily climate records typically have fewer gaps than hourly records, and are usually associated with stations closures. Hourly datasets typically contain more significant gaps, and are usually associated with equipment malfunction or seasonal closings. Research suggests that many hourly datasets are missing over 40% of their entire period of record.  The report describes practical techniques that have been used to "fill in" missing data using nearby climate stations to create continuous climate datasets across Ontario for the 1950 to 2005 period of record.

For access to the Infilled Climate Databases please contact us