MEDICINE HAT, AB – After a month of scorching temperatures, conditions seem to be normalizing after the hottest July in a decade.
Twenty-two days of temperatures above 30 degrees has baked southern Alberta, including many local rivers and streams.
Environment Canada’s Senior Climatologist David Phillips said it’s a rare sight to see.
“You normally would see in a whole year maybe 26 days [above 30 degrees], and there were only three in June and two in May,” said Phillips. “So, it’s really been a turnaround in July.”
As is often the case during the summer, locals are using water at a much higher rate compared to other times of the year.
City of Medicine Hat Manager of Water John Michalopoulos said they’ve been kept very busy this summer.
“Demand at the water treatment plant almost quadruples from our base demand of what people use normally, just in their household usage,” said Michalopoulos. “So, you think about car washing, irrigation, those types of things.”
As of August 2, a total of 40 water shortage advisories have been issued across the province.
While the South Saskatchewan River isn’t included in that group, water levels have plummeted over the last few weeks.
Colleen Walford, who works as a river forecast engineer for Alberta Environment, said it’s verging on historically low levels.
“Right now, we’re looking at flows around 50 metres cubed per second flowing through the city,” said Walford. “When you look at the historical record going back to about 1911, there’s only eight years that are lower.”
River flows were sitting at around 80 cubic metres per second on July 22, but have dropped close to 30 cubic metres per second over a 12-day span.
With the City generating around 100 million cubic metres of water per day, Michalopoulos said there are no concerns of running short.
“Although the river seems low, it’s a little bit below average in flow, it’s not unusual for this time of the year,” he said. “Although we had a warm month of July, it really hasn’t affected our production that much.”
City staff said roughly 25 to 30 million cubic metres of water is needed per day to cover all residents.
This is on par with previous years, despite the July heat wave.
While still encouraged by the City, water conservation measures such as rotating watering schedules won’t be mandated in the near future.
Anyone wanting to learn more about ways to conserve water can visit the City of Medicine Hat’s website.
Pending significant rainfall in August, Alberta Environment expects the South Saskatchewan River to remain at low levels into the fall.
