New reports on prairie and mountain snowpacks predict below average to average river levels this summer and the potential for drought in areas north and east of Medicine Hat. The South Saskatchewan River is seen on Jan. 17, 2023.--News Photo Collin Gallant
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Snowpack values in the Cypress Hills are as much as 50 per cent more than average, according to first report of the season on the potential prairie runoff.
But, regions in central southern Alberta show less cover, and agencies in Saskatchewan are predicting well below-normal runoff near Maple Creek.
Alberta Environment reports the values in the Cypress Hills beginning in early February each year.
Figures for Jan. 27 in surveys of the upper and lower branches of Gros Ventre, Mitchell and Ross creeks show generally that compared to 40 years of data, the pillow in 2023 would rank in the top 10 over that time.
The Saskatchewan Water Agency announced Tuesday its 2023 runoff observations have begun, but a preliminary assessment done in October puts “extreme drought risk” in a huge area from Maple Creek to Elbow, to north of Kindersley along the Alberta boundary.
On the northwest side of the Cypress Hills the highest volumes of snow-water equivalent were generally recorded in 2008 and 2009, and the lowest in 2002.
On the Gros Ventre, 98 millimetres of water equivalent in samples taken in January was the fifth-most over 40 years, behind the all-time high of 168-mm in 2011. The average is 64 mm. Mitchell Creek saw the seventh most, and readings at lower Ross Creek (123mm) were the third most since 1982. That is twice the average (63 mm), but reading at higher elevations closer to the historical norm.
A wider survey of plains runoff potential from Environment Canada shows extremely low levels of snow coverage in areas south and east of Lethbridge extending past Bow Island, but improving on a line into southwest Saskatchewan.
Based on the mountain snowpack, the ministry predicts major river basins in southern Alberta will be below average to average for the March to September period. That includes the Bow, Oldman and Milk river systems.
