Many NWT rivers and lakes are still low

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It feels like a lifetime ago, but it was only in 2020 and 2021 that some NWT rivers and lakes were at their highest water levels on record.

Since the summer of 2022, that has changed dramatically and a drought has parked itself across large areas of the territory.

In mid-June 2025, levels on the Mackenzie River and Great Slave Lake remain “well below average” according to a report from NWT government hydrologists this week.

Some lakes and rivers are still setting records for low water, lower even than 2024.

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The GNWT has yet to announce how its summer barge resupply season will approach the problem, though the territory says it has loaded up on goods and fuel in some communities via the winter road, and has devised an alternative route via the Dehcho if the Mackenzie near Fort Providence is too low for safe travel.

“Low water levels are the result of extreme drought conditions that began in the summer of 2022 and have persisted through 2023 and 2024,” the GNWT hydrology team stated this week. (We have previously looked at the question of whether dams in the south had any effect.)

“Water levels have since shown some recovery,” the report added, “but this has mostly been limited to smaller rivers and lakes.”

The situation in the NWT is not being helped by lower-than-average precipitation in northern Alberta and BC, where much of the water that flows into the territory originates.

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Long-term forecasts don’t give any suggestion that the drought will lift any time soon. Sustained periods of wetter-than-average weather would be required.

These GNWT-supplied charts show the current situation.

How to read the charts: The dark blue line is 2025 and the light blue line is 2024. The darkest grey is the average range – essentially, where a normal year might be expected to land. The medium grey band shows where an outlying year might land, and the lightest grey shows the old minimum and maximum years prior to 2024.