Experts warn snowpack lower than last year in parts of Alberta

For Stephen Vandervalk, monitoring snowpack in the mountains is an important way to gauge how his farm operation near Fort Macleod, Alta., might fare the rest of the year. 

He watches reports from Castle Mountain Resort to see how much snow has accumulated on the mountain. The snowpack there is about 25 to 30 per cent down from the usual average for the first week of March, according to the resort.

"That's one of the main feeding sources for our dam [which irrigates the crops], and yeah, it's significantly down," he said. "It's not looking very promising."

The province's early data shows lower than normal snowpack levels in the Eastern Slopes.

Tricia Stadnyk, Canada Research Chair in Hydrologic Modelling and professor at the University of Calgary's Schulich School of Engineering, said numerous regions are seeing lower snowpack levels than this time last year.

While the province's drought map indicates most regions are experiencing Stage 1 drought conditions, Stadnyk said she believes the current data on snowpack levels point to worse drought conditions that should be a cause for concern

"People last year at this time were very concerned about drought. We were going into unprecedented negotiations around water," she said. "[We were] at Stage 4 drought scenario with the province and this year we're not. But we're actually lower in snowpack [in certain regions] than we were at this time last year."

Stage 1 drought conditions mean "monitor and observe," while Stage 4 indicates "significant drought conditions in multiple water management areas."

John Pomeroy, the Canada Research Chair in Water Resources and Climate Change, said the mountain snowpack is "short hundreds of millimetres of water" from where it's expected to be this time of year.

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"It's not impossible that we're heading into one of the worst mountain droughts of this century," said the professor from the University of Saskatchewan.

"We were very prepared for a drought in stream flows last year and we haven't had those discussions this year, and this year is looking far worse than last year."

According to the Alberta Rivers website, 33 water basins are currently flagged with water shortage advisories.

Ryan Fournier, press secretary to the Minister of Environment and Protected Areas, told CBC News in an emailed statement that it's still early in the year with more precipitation to come. He added there are also positive signs in other areas of the province.