Water Management Update – Mar 21/19

From the TSW:

Weather

The weather forecast for Thursday and Friday of this week is predicting a small precipitation event of 5 mm combined with plus temperatures approaching 10 degrees and above zero at night during the weekend.  The warm up and cool down period is estimated to be approximately 36 hours in length.  The brief warm spell is followed by more seasonal temperatures.   

Outlook

Rainfall and warm temperatures earlier in the week have, for the most part, primed the snow to be ready to run off and even resulted in localized melt.  Water levels and outflows are expected to remain elevated at all locations due to the precipitation and snow melt. Trent Severn Water Management team will be active and the changing conditions will be closely monitored.  Any watershed conditions updates will be released by your Conservation Authority or local Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources district. 

Haliburton and Northern Areas 

Most of the reservoir lakes remain at their respective winter set dam configuration. Operational activities in some reservoir lakes were conducted last week to reduce water levels further in anticipation of localized melt. Water levels on the lakes in general are below average and are levelling off after the recent event.  Flows on the Gull and Burnt Rivers remain above average for this time of year and will likely increase with the rainfall and warm temperatures.  Current snowpack is measured to vary from above average in some areas to average for this time of the year and is slowly receding with warm temperatures and localized melt.