Snowpack in the provincial mountain parks seeing above average accumulations

Experts say the snowpack in Banff measures two metres deep and is well enough to keep reservoirs full.

As winter continues to grip southern Alberta, a team heads out regularly to sites across the province to keep track of the annual snowpack.

This winter, it’s finding levels above average in the mountain parks.

“This year we’re seeing a lot of above-average snowpack,” said Nathalie Brunet, river forecast engineer. “Higher depths and more snow, especially in the Bow River Basin, we’re seeing a lot more snow – a little less so closer to normal in the Old Man – and then more in the plains.”

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Brunet compiles the data in her Edmonton office collected at the start of every month from November to June by the province’s water monitoring technologists.

As a special treat, she’s heading into the field via helicopter with the technologists to physically collect snow samples from a number of historic sites in the mountain parks.

“I appreciate the work my colleagues are doing to come out here and measure the snow,” she said. “To understand the variability in the snow, the density of the snow, what the different spots look like - trees, no trees here and how that affects the snow density in the snow depth.”

“It’s interesting to see at the different elevations what the snow looks like; there’s definitely a lot of value in coming out and seeing it.”

Leading the way is May Guan, water monitoring technologist, who says the majority of the survey sites are in remote areas and were established in the 1970s.

“Many of the sites in the province are over 40 years old,” she said. “Some of them are over 50 years old, so right now, we’re doing the April 1 snow surveys and we use the last 30 years to see how today’s number compared to the last 30 years of measured numbers for this time of the year.”

Guan uses simple tools to measure the depth and weight of the snow at ten marked spots at one survey site.

“The scale is rated to density of water, and you can figure out the water equivalent of the snowpack,” she said. “So, if at this site, all this snow melted right now, [we could figure out] how much liquid water are we standing on top of.”

Guan and the other technologists say snow events early in the season have contributed to an above average snowpack.

Brunet says from her perspective, things are shaping up nicely this year for her river forecasting.

“Reservoirs right now are in a really good place,” she said. “Most of them are sitting within their normal ranges, so we’re doing better than we had been the last couple of years in terms of drought, so I think we’re setting ourselves up to be in a good place at the start of the season.”