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An evacuation notice remains in place for Hay River residents on Thursday. There was no ice movement overnight and water levels have dropped, the town said at 10am.
However, the municipality added that “a warming trend coming later today and into the next week” would mean water levels soon begin rising.
The NWT government says warmer-than-average temperatures are forecast for the Hay River and lower Liard basins this weekend.
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“Temperatures will approach 20C in the southern parts of the basins and will rapidly melt residual snowpack,” a Wednesday update from the territory’s Department of Environment and Climate Change stated.
Warm spring temperatures have triggered the start of breakup earlier than is usually the case, but conditions are generally reported to be less threatening this year than last. Hay River suffered devastating flooding in 2022 when a series of circumstances came together at the worst moment.
Yet the unpredictability of ice jams – which can cause significant flooding no matter the other factors – has led the town to issue an evacuation notice as ice collects and grinds its way through the community, heading out toward Great Slave Lake.
The notice does not mean residents must evacuate, but asks people to prepare for the possibility of an evacuation alert (meaning be ready to go) or an evacuation order (an instruction to leave).
Updates are now being provided by the town at 10am and 5pm daily.
