River currently calm, but higher water is on the way
It may all look quiet on the river front but water levels in the South Saskatchewan River are on the rise, says Alberta Environment.
“The water levels along the South Saskatchewan River are forecast to continue to rise slowly through the weekend and into early next week due to a combination of snowmelt and rainfall runoff from the eastern slopes gradually making its way downstream to Medicine Hat,” said Jason Penner, spokesperson for Alberta Environment & Parks.
The river level was at 2.5 metres on Tuesday but had risen to more than 3 metres by Friday afternoon, according to Alberta Environment online data. To put that into perspective it had risen to 3.9 metres on April 25.
Penner does not expect that level to be exceeded this weekend.
“The current gauge height is approximately three metres and there is no significant precipitation in the forecast,” he said.
In the last week between 5 mm and 20 mm of rain has fallen across much of the province and thunderstorm activity on Friday was expected to dump up to 30 mm more, according to information from Alberta Environment. Snowmelt continues too. “The cooler temperatures over the last few days did reduce the snowmelt, resulting in a small drop in flows in the streams along the eastern slopes. However, runoff is expected to pick up again with a return to seasonal values this weekend,” said Penner.
Seven Persons Creek, that saw a significant rise in water level in late April to 1.5 metres, has now dropped to slightly more than 0.5 metres.
The water level in Ross Creek at Highway 41 had been at 1.2 metres on May 4 but dropped to less than 1.16 metres on May 9. There was a slight increase to 1.18 metres on Thursday before subsiding again on Friday, according to Alberta Environment’s website.