I’m not sure how Environment Canada’s new five-day local weather page is supposed to be an improvement on its predecessor. The graphic design is a bit cleaner, but a) the user now has to mouseover for text information which was directly posted on the page before, and b) the icon for flurries and ‘periods of snow’ is now the same, forcing the user to look at the text forecast. Check it out:

Knowing that there will be periods of snow is the kind of information that leads people to look at a weather forecast in the first place, which brings us back to point (a).

RSS is a step ahead, but they really need a more 21st-century way of distributing weather warnings. GO Transit’s system could be a model.

Anyway, just for fun, here are all 45 new weather icons. My favourite is #43, which as far as I can tell warns of blowing leaves:

Any ideas about #23? It’s either ‘Sun and clouds will prevail at night’ or a solar eclipse.