ECCC launches new colour-coded Canadian weather alerts
Environment and Climate Change Canada will use a three-colour system to convey the risk posed by weather hazards across the country
You’ll soon notice a colourful change to the weather alerts issued for your area by Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC).
Beginning Nov. 26, 2025, the agency will unveil colour-coded alerts across the country.
This new system will help Canadians understand and prepare for the level of weather impacts possible during hazardous conditions.
Understanding the alert colours
Every weather watch, advisory, and warning issued by ECCC will now have a colour attached to convey the potential risk posed by each hazard.
Yellow alerts indicate that hazardous weather may cause "damage, disruption, or health impacts" in your area. Yellow is the most common type of alert, advising that impacts are expected to be moderate and localized.
Orange alerts are less common, signalling the risk for severe weather that may cause significant damage, disruption, or danger to your health. Weather that prompts an orange alert may lead to major and widespread impacts, potentially lasting for up to a few days.
Red alerts are rare and reserved for the most urgent situations, when very dangerous and possibly life-threatening weather may cause extreme damage and disruption. Communities under a red weather alert could expect extensive, widespread, and prolonged impacts.
For example, you’ll now see alerts displayed in the following format:
Yellow Advisory - Fog
Orange Watch - Severe Thunderstorm
Red Warning - Rain
Colours chosen based on impacts and confidence
Meteorologists with ECCC will choose a colour to convey a weather alert’s risk level based on both forecast confidence and possible weather impacts.
Some factors that determine a weather event’s potential impacts include property damage, travel delays, power outages, health dangers, and how long it may take for the affected areas to recover afterward.
Greater confidence and greater impacts will necessitate a higher risk level. For instance, high confidence in a high-impact weather event would warrant an orange alert. Red alerts are only issued when forecasters are very confident in extreme severe weather impacts.
Historical examples of the new alert system in action
Here are some examples of how these new alerts will work in everyday practice.
A chinook wind event in southern Alberta produced localized gusts capable of scattered tree damage and short-term power outages. Given the moderate impacts expected, forecasters would likely have issued a Yellow Warning - Wind for this event.
Widespread freezing rain affected southern Ontario in March 2025. Some communities saw more than 20 mm of ice accretion, and around one million homes and businesses lost power. ECCC would have issued an Orange Warning - Ice for this event.
An unprecedented atmospheric river event swept into southern British Columbia in November 2021, causing an estimated $450 million in damages. This is the type of high-end event for which forecasters reserve red alerts. The historic deluge would have received a Red Warning - Rain from ECCC forecasters.