UPDATED: As of 6:31 a.m. on Monday, the flood watch on the Elbow River was upgraded to a warning.
Water levels have risen by roughly two metres, with an additional 0.5 metres expected, the province’s dashboard states.
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The City of Calgary has updated river conditions on Sunday, advising citizens to take care near low-lying areas and along pathways.
Meanwhile, the province has issued a flood watch, as of 3:07 p.m. Sunday, for the Elbow River basin west of Calgary, noting that water level rises of up to 1.5 to 2.4 metres are possible, with peak flows between 150 to 240 cubic metres per second.
It comes as there’s been widespread rainfall west of Calgary along the Eastern Slopes and in the foothills. Areas west of Calgary, feeding the Elbow River basin, have seen more than 71.1 millimetres of rain, according to the Alberta river basins dashboard.
Based on provincial flood mapping, there could be impacts at the Glencoe Golf Course, according to the dashboard.
While there is also a high streamflow advisory in place in the Bow River basin, with water level rises of up to one metre, no specific impacts are expected.
According to the City of Calgary, river flows are expected to moderately increase throughout Sunday and Monday, with levels staying elevated for a few days. The river flow will be managed by the reservoirs on the Bow and Elbow Rivers, the city said.
It’s expected that a High Streamflow Advisory will be issued by the Calgary Fire Department by Monday. That would restrict any boating on waters inside Calgary city limits.
Right now, the City of Calgary said that city crews are responding to drainage issues, and they have crews and materials in place should conditions change and more response is required.
Mayor Jeromy Farkas posted a message to Calgarians on X (formerly Twitter) Sunday evening. He said that City of Calgary teams are closely monitoring the situation, with updates coming every six hours.
“Unfortunately, unlike the system we saw at the start of June, temperatures are warmer this time, so most of the precipitation is expected to fall as rain instead of snow,” he said.
“As a result, river flows on both the Bow and Elbow are expected to rise through the middle of the week and into Canada Day.”
The latest flood information can be found at the City of Calgary’s website.
