With spring rolling into the province, snow is melting and posing a challenge that the Saskatchewan Water Security Agency (WSA) is looking to track. Their latest developments were put forward in their annual Spring Runoff Report, which details the risks of flooding and drought which may come up in Saskatchewan.
WSA Spokesperson Patrick Boyle talks about what they're expecting to see come to the province this spring.
"Generally across Saskatchewan, it's kind of a mixed scenario. The majority of central and southern Saskatchewan is near normal to above normal category. Then there are some pockets in the South to the southeast portion that are below normal right now."
Most of northern Saskatchewan will see a below-normal year as well.
Reservoirs in the province, including those in the southeast like Rafferty and Garnt Devine, are doing well with the projected runoff.
One area the southeast might be in trouble for is the drought risk, with an area to watch out for popping up around Estevan.
"The Weyburn and Estevan area is kind of in that higher risk category but a lot of that's informed by the precipitation we're gonna see, so rainfall in the spring and summer. It's kind of looking at the average going forward, they're probably at a higher risk of some of those drier conditions, but a lot of that is determined or yet to come as we see some of the precipitation amounts in the future."
Boyle says that as a whole the province is ready for what looks to be an improvement in moisture.
"Right now generally across the province, it's a bit of improvement as far as moisture levels from the last couple of years are pretty dry conditions. So although there are still some pockets there that have that, you know overall looking at above normal to near normal in many areas in Saskatchewan, but most producers out there can tell you that right away based on how much snow they have in their field. So that's probably not a huge surprise."
The long-range forecasts that come with the spring run-off report are calling for near-normal precipitation and temperatures over the next few months.