Experts warn snowpack lower than last year in parts of Alberta

Rukhsar Ali · CBC News

· Posted: Mar 06, 2025 7:00 AM EST | Last Updated: 8 hours ago

For Stephen Vandervalk, monitoring snowpack successful the mountains is an important mode to gauge however his workplace cognition adjacent Fort Macleod, Alta., mightiness fare the remainder of the year. 

He watches reports from Castle Mountain Resort to spot however overmuch snowfall has accumulated connected the mountain. The snowpack determination is astir 25 to 30 per cent down from the accustomed mean for the archetypal week of March, according to the resort.

"That's 1 of the main feeding sources for our dam [which irrigates the crops], and yeah, it's importantly down," helium said. "It's not looking precise promising."

The province's aboriginal information shows little than mean snowpack levels successful the Eastern Slopes.

Tricia Stadnyk, Canada Research Chair successful Hydrologic Modelling and prof astatine the University of Calgary's Schulich School of Engineering, said galore regions are seeing little snowpack levels than this clip past year.

While the province's drought map indicates astir regions are experiencing Stage 1 drought conditions, Stadnyk said she believes the existent information connected snowpack levels constituent to worse drought conditions that should beryllium a origin for concern

"People past twelvemonth astatine this clip were precise acrophobic astir drought. We were going into unprecedented negotiations astir water," she said. "[We were] astatine Stage 4 drought script with the state and this twelvemonth we're not. But we're really little successful snowpack [in definite regions] than we were astatine this clip past year."

Stage 1 drought conditions mean "monitor and observe," while Stage 4 indicates "significant drought conditions successful aggregate h2o absorption areas."

John Pomeroy, the Canada Research Chair successful Water Resources and Climate Change, said the upland snowpack is "short hundreds of millimetres of water" from wherever it's expected to beryllium this clip of year.

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"It's not intolerable that we're heading into 1 of the worst upland droughts of this century," said the prof from the University of Saskatchewan.

"We were precise prepared for a drought successful watercourse flows past twelvemonth and we haven't had those discussions this year, and this twelvemonth is looking acold worse than past year."

According to the Alberta Rivers website, 33 h2o basins are presently flagged with h2o shortage advisories.

Ryan Fournier, property caput to the Minister of Environment and Protected Areas, told CBC News successful an emailed statement that it's inactive aboriginal successful the twelvemonth with much precipitation to come. He added determination are besides affirmative signs successful different areas of the province.

"For example, the confederate plains country stretching from Lethbridge to the Cypress Hills has received much precipitation than normal, with immoderate areas successful southeastern Alberta seeing precipitation amounts good supra normal," helium said.

But Pomeroy warned that adjacent with precipitation, the existing h2o shortage is simply a ample 1 to drawback up to and would necessitate large storms successful the mountains.

Southern Alberta astatine higher risk

In its astir recent Water Supply Outlook, Alberta Environment and Protected Areas stated that snowfall accumulation measured "much beneath average" successful the Oldman, Bow, Athabasca and North Saskatchewan stream basins arsenic of Feb. 1. 

The province's caller supra mean temperatures person meant losing a ample portion of the snowpack, Stadnyk explained. 

Although the snowfall play isn't over, she said, the snowfall pillow levels (how overmuch h2o would result if the snowpack were to melt) are peculiarly concerning for confederate Alberta. Stadnyk said what she truly wants to spot is not conscionable snowfall, but snowfall accumulation.

"If we proceed to person warmer than mean temperatures and a small spot of snowfall, we won't marque a important quality successful presumption of our wide h2o supply," Stadnyk said. "That is decidedly going to person a lasting interaction connected our reservoir levels, our watercourse levels."

"It volition enactment a batch of unit connected industry, h2o uses and h2o licences again."

Vandervalk said his workplace felt the unit of h2o restrictions past year, erstwhile helium was constricted to consuming little than fractional his emblematic h2o usage.

"It's beauteous hard to turn crops with fractional the water, our irrigation crops. And past erstwhile … your adust onshore is besides dry, it's benignant of a treble whammy. So it's precise concerning, for sure."

Farmers acrophobic astir different drought year

Further north, adjacent Peace River, Alta., atom husbandman Christi Friesen said the mixed container of upwind is making for an antithetic year.

"We person afloat connected ditches moving up here," she said, "For it to beryllium March 4th and we're seeing ditches run, we're seeing … stubble successful the field, you know, that is simply a small spot concerning."

The runoff is apt caused by frost underground that hasn't thawed, preventing the h2o from being absorbed into the soil, she explained. 

"I cognize for america up successful the Peace, we've really had a spot of a weird year. We've received a batch much freezing rainfall than normal," she said. "It's not adjacent small amounts of freezing rain. We've received inches of freezing rainfall successful the mediate of wintertime and past had the warm-up. And we don't know, is [the water] going into the ground? Where is it going?"

Environment Canada forecasts supra mean precipitation for astir of the state and mean levels for the Rocky Mountains and acold bluish portion done April.

"The biggest quality betwixt this twelvemonth and past twelvemonth is we did person immoderate rainfall this fall. But that small spot of rainfall was acting to refill a precise adust concern wherever we'd truly been drying retired a sponge for 2 years," Stadnyk said.

"So now, coupled with the deficiency of snowpack for different twelvemonth successful a row, this is simply a overmuch much precarious situation."