What difference is snow making to NWT water levels?

Inuvik is setting records but snow has barely fallen in other parts of the NWT as water levels across the territory “remain very low.”

The NWT government delivered that conclusion in a water monitoring bulletin published on Tuesday, documenting the continuation of a dry period that began in mid-2022 and hasn’t eased up since.

In December, Inuvik recorded snowfall of 47.2 mm snow water equivalent – in other words, the amount of water when the snow is melted. Snow water equivalent is used to account for the different kinds of snow that can fall.

That’s Inuvik’s record high figure, but Fort Simpson posted an extremely low figure for December of 4.5 mm snow water equivalent.

Snowfall was a little below average in Hay River and Fort Smith last month, and slightly above average in Yellowknife.

The amount of snow water equivalent that accumulates over the winter “provides a strong indication of how much water will be available to flow to rivers and lakes in the spring,” the Department of Environment and Climate Change bulletin stated.

In turn, that’ll be a factor as the NWT prepares for the spring breakup of its lakes and rivers – and for the 2024 wildfire season, having just emerged from a devastating 2023.

Right now, it’s too early to know for sure how summer wildfire conditions will look. In the months ahead, water levels and drought conditions are guaranteed to be closely scrutinized by NWT residents, communities and leaders.

“Great Slave Lake and Mackenzie River water levels remain extremely low, largely due to hot and dry conditions in northern Alberta and British Columbia and the southern NWT over the past two summers,” the bulletin stated.

According to the latest federal estimate of drought conditions, more than half the territory is in some sort of drought, with an area of the South Slave considered to be in extreme drought.

The Slave River is well below its average water level, the bulletin added, and Great Slave Lake is still at its lowest water level ever recorded – as has been the case for months.

Great Slave Lake’s level is increasing slightly with more water coming in from the Slave River than is heading out to the Mackenzie. ECC said that was “typical and expected for this time of year.”