Paul VE3HFQ and Bill VE3ES were literally putting the final touches on the station (VE3YQG) located at the Windsor Weather Office in early April 1987 when the very first CANWARN net was called to order.
A report of a tornado in south east Michigan on a path towards Essex County was relayed to Environment Canada's severe weather desk in Toronto, Ontario.
Later that year, after the Edmonton tornado and at the request of the Hage Report[4] CANWARN was expanded beyond the initial program run out of the Windsor (Ontario) Weather Office.
Initially, CANWARN was predominantly based in southern Ontario and central Alberta but eventually grew to encompass the entire country by the early 1990s.
In the 1970s, it increased spotting efforts and launched its Skywarn program, which partly inspired CANWARN.