Data disclaimer & attribution

Not for navigation or safety decisions

LakePulse Canada aggregates public data to help you plan time on the water. It is not a safety system, an official forecast, or a substitute for judgment. Conditions on lakes change faster than any 15-minute gauge or hourly model — always verify against official sources (Environment Canada marine and wind warnings for advisories, agency and park pages for access) and your own eyes before launching. The decision to go out, and its consequences, are yours.

Model forecasts are estimates

Wind numbers come from numerical weather models served via Open-Meteo. Models carry uncertainty, and terrain-complex lakes (mountain, desert, canyon) can differ substantially from model output. The sailing score is an opinion encoded in math — a useful one, we think, but an opinion. Treat it as a planning aid, not ground truth.

Gauge-to-lake matching

Each lake page is matched to a Water Survey of Canada gauge by name and station catalogue. Some large lakes have multiple gauges and we show the freshest reporting one. If data looks wrong for your lake, trust the source: every page links to the official WSC real-time report for its gauge.

Sources & licenses

• Environment and Climate Change Canada — Water Survey of Canada — Environment and Climate Change Canada — Water Survey of Canada — real-time hydrometric data via api.weather.gc.ca. Open information, published under the Open Government Licence – Canada.
• Open-Meteo — Open-Meteo — weather forecasts (ECCC GEM/HRDPS, NOAA GFS, DWD ICON and others), under their free API terms.
• RainViewer — RainViewer — radar tiles, free tier.
• OpenStreetMap & Overpass API — OpenStreetMap & Overpass API — launch ramps, marinas, clubs; base map tiles by CARTO. Map data © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database Licence.
• Solunar times — Solunar times — computed by LakePulse Canada from standard astronomical approximations; accuracy ±15 minutes.

Affiliation

LakePulse Canada is an independent project. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by ECCC, Open-Meteo, CARTO, the OpenStreetMap Foundation, or any agency.