This winter has been a dry one, and outside of a few major snowfalls during the cold season, Calgary has been largely bereft of much-needed moisture.

Although many Calgarians might not think of winter as a time of year for droughts, that is how the City of Calgary is classifying the current lack of precipitation.

“The city and the region is currently in a drought situation, and our indicators point that we’re experiencing higher than average risk,” said Nicole Newton, Manager, Natural Environment and Adaptation for the City of Calgary.

“The conditions are quite dry and we’re seeing that in our backyards.”

Newton said that the city has been monitoring river levels and snowpack as the city prepares for 2024. While she admits it can be hard to forecast into 2024, the strong El Niño climate this year will likely lead to drier and warmer conditions.

“We’re really looking upstream in the watershed where our source water does come from, and in the mountains. We continue to monitor that snowpack, and that will lead to the river conditions leading into spring and summer. As well, we’ll be monitoring the precipitation that comes in the in the springtime.”

Those shortages in precipitation and snow that we’ve seen so far this year, should they persist into 2024 said Newton, would likely lead to a return to some level of water restrictions in the City of Calgary.

“We are taking steps to plan to be in some sort of outdoor water restrictions phase leading into next year.”

Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek, in LWC’s year-end interview, talked about water challenges for 2024. She said that they’re learning more from surrounding municipalities about the need for automatic mandatory outdoor water restrictions. The example of stewardship she used was Okotoks, which has mandatory water restrictions in place from May to October that are equivalent to Calgary’s Stage One water restrictions.

These water restrictions were mandated in Calgary in August 2023.

“I can’t predict what administration will bring forward, but I can tell you there’s many members of council that have expressed their extreme concern about the situation we’re in and how we’re going to mitigate it,” the mayor said.

The City of Calgary’s Drought Resilience Strategy, approved earlier this year, also prescribed further water restrictions in Calgary on an ongoing basis.

Drought conditions seen across the province

The cumulative total precipitation for Calgary this year has been on the low end of cumulative amounts since 1993.

Data recorded at the Calgary International Airport weather station, and provided by Canada Climate Data, recorded that this year there has been 344.3 mm of precipitation—or the fifth driest year since 1993 for totals up to Dec. 18, the last day data was available.

Previous lows were in 2001, 2002, 2009, and 2021.

Newton said that water restrictions for outdoor use were one of the ways the city can best address water shortages. Outdoor water use has been historically one of the most consumptive uses of water in Calgary.

"Water is our most precious resource. It is a key resource that drives the economic engine of Calgary. Thinking about how we can use that a little bit more wisely as we move into a drought period is really important, and we have some work underway with our partners that includes the province, and the major water users, as well as the regional communities that we serve," she said.

"We're working through those various scenarios and trying to understand what actions we might have to take."

She said that to avert restrictions, the City would be looking for significant snowpack levels that could refill Calgary's reservoirs, as well as upstream reservoirs.

"This was a dry year. We did our best to manage our reservoir levels, both within the city and upstream with our partners. We did draw on those, but we were able to stabilize the use of them," Newton said.

"So they are low—operating in their lower percentiles than they normally would at this time of year—so we would be looking for significant snowpack or spring rains to be able to replenish those."

Snowpack levels for Little Elbow Summit and Sunshine Village both show below-average seasonal snowpack accumulation so far this season. Snow levels at Little Elbow have closely followed the lower quantile levels of snow, according to data from Environment Canada. At Sunshine Village, the snow levels are below the lower quantile.

Across Alberta, 51 water shortage advisories have been issued by the Government of Alberta for water management areas—including that of five water management areas that overlap in Calgary—as part of an overall drought that is seen throughout the province.

Currently, the province is sitting at a level four (of five) water management stage, which indicates a large-scale water shortage that has a significant impact on industry and residential users of water resources.

The Canadian Drought Forecast, published by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, has forecast worsening drought conditions at the end of December for Calgary.

Newton said that Calgarians can make contributions to conserving water now, which will make an impact on city planning into the spring.

Methods suggested by the City of Calgary include repairing water leaks in pipes, faucets, and toilets as a way to conserve water and save money, reducing the number of laundry loads done per week, taking shorter showers, and taking steps to prepare for the spring to use water outdoors before 10 a.m. or after 4 p.m. to reduce evaporation.