Charles Carpmael was born on September 19, 1846, in Streatham, Surrey, England.

He was a meteorologist and astronomer. He received his B.A. (1869) and his M.A. (1872) from Cambridge University. He worked as a civil engineer at Southampton Buildings, London. In 1870, he participated in the British sun eclipse expedition to Estepona, near Gibraltar. In 1872, he settled in Toronto, Ontario where he worked as an Assistant Director of the Meteorological Service of Canada (1872) and as its Director (1880-1894). Besides undertaking work in solar physics, including spectroscopy, he involved Canada in international scientific events. He developed the Canadian Weather Bureau and directed the development and extension of the Canadian storm-warning and weather-forecasting services. He served as a Vice-President of the mathematical, chemical, and physical section of the Royal Society of Canada (1882) and as its President in 1885. In 1890, he helped found the Astronomical and Physical Society of Toronto and as its President, he organized systematic magnetic observations to study earth currents.

In 1876, he married Julia McKenzie. He died on October 20, 1894, in Hastings, Sussex, England.