Southern Alberta snowpack well below average this year: experts

Farmers and ranchers downstream rely on the moisture in the mountains, but after a mild winter, this year's snowpack is well below average.

The snowpack in Alberta is monitored continuously throughout the winter months beginning in November through to the end of May.

Technicians gather information from the field and real time data is also sent back to river forecasters electronically from several remote sensors.

Colleen Walford, provincial river forecast specialist, analyzes all the data.

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She says March and April snowfalls are helping to boost the mountain park snowpack, but data collected from most southern Alberta regions is showing well-below-average numbers.

“At this time, we are approximately 47 millimeters lower in snow water equivalent survey values than last year,” she said. “But again, we do have six weeks of potential accumulation, so there’s always the chance for improvement.”

Walford says the province collects snow survey data from historical sites at close to the same time every month.

“At some locations, we have 50 years of data now, and it really does tell a story,” she said.

“(For instance,) how the last ten years is compared to the last 50; it’s just fascinating. Data to me is absolutely the most interesting thing.”

Walford says it’s difficult to base the annual snowfall amounts on averages calculated from the high and low data.

“There is no average,” she said. “We have highs, and we have lows, and you average them out to something, but either we’re talking about low snowpack or we’re talking about really high snowpack and the potential risk that could represent for (river) flows in June.”

The data gathered is to provide municipalities, irrigators and others that are interested in the amount of water that potentially could flow through the whole river basin through the March to September period.

When Walford looks at all the data collected this winter, she says it is similar to 2023 or slightly better.

“The biggest users of the data would be our own Alberta Agriculture Infrastructure water managers,” she said. “Then we’ve got the various irrigation districts so they’re planning their season and, to a lesser degree, to the municipalities, and I think all of the major groups involved in water management worked really well together (managing the water resource in 2023), and I don’t see anything differently for this year.”

Meteorological technologist Dennis Rollag has been collecting field data for 11 years at those historic sights in the mountain parks.

He says this winter has been similar to 2024.

“Last year we got a ton of snow in November, pretty much nothing in December or January or February, and then in March it started picking up again,” he said. “We usually see the most of our snowpack accumulate in March.”

The physical data he collects with a snow tube measures the depth of the snow and the sample’s weight.

He then uses those two numbers to calculate the water equivalency of the snowpack.

Rollag says late season snowfalls are a positive sign.

“We definitely want more snow,” he said. “We always need more water downstream, so it makes me feel good about it. It was a little concerning earlier on in the season, but it’s kind of shaped up.”

Rollag will head out next at the end of April and then again at the end of May to collect more samples for river forecasters.