Murray Wood: Who's being fooled this April 1?
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With the exception of east central Saskatchewan, there is no concern for spring run-off this month.
Patrick Boyle with the Water Security Agency (WSA) said the high temperatures this week could cause some potential flooding around Canora, Kamsack and up north to Hudson Bay.
“When it doesn’t freeze at night, the snow melt won’t slow down, so you’re going to see a quick response off the landscape,” Boyle said.
The region was wetter than normal going into the winter and saw significant snowfall in March and April compared to the rest of the province, leaving it with a significant snow pack to still melt away.
“That could create some potential out-of-bank flows and possible flooding or maybe backing up of a municipal road here and there,” he said.
Even with a fast melt, Boyle said any potential flooding would be on a smaller scale, and the risk is nowhere near what the region dealt with in the summer of 2014 or the spring of 2011.
Flooding around the Quill Lakes has not receded after a few years and even with low run-off, the water levels are expected to break another record this spring. Boyle said the run-off is expected to peak later this week, bringing water levels to 520.7 metres which is 0.05 metres higher than the record last year.
“Fairly similar levels to what happened last year, so obviously there we’re looking to get some losses from evaporation,” Boyle said.
At this point, he said there is no way to predict the level of concern in the area over the summer because it all depends on rainfall in July and August.
Other areas across the province are quite dry after a winter with very little snow. The WSA is diverting water from Lake Diefenbaker toward Buffalo Pound Lake to keep it at its normal summer range.
“That’s due to essentially not a lot of spring run-off in that area, really no spring run-off and no local inflow, so we divert water to keep that above that range,” Boyle explained.
Along the Qu’Appelle River system, he said several lakes have peaked already. Boyle said Crooked Lake is beginning to drop slowly to get to a desirable range.
