Drought – Current conditions

As of August 13, there are 10 water shortage advisories in place for select water management areas across Alberta.

• Alberta Rivers - advisories

Based on accumulated precipitation data, observed monthly flows, and monthly snowpack survey data (collected between February and June each year), Alberta produces a water supply outlook that estimates the total runoff volume for 20 locations in southern and central Alberta. The water supply outlook is typically published during the second week of each month between January and August. A season in review report will be published in November.

• Water supply outlook (August 2026)
• The Water supply outlook is available at Alberta River Basins.

We are forecasting river volumes through September that are above normal or well above normal for the North Saskatchewan, Bow, and Oldman River basins, and upper parts of the Red Deer River basin. The Milk River basin is expected to see river volumes that are below to well below normal.

Alberta conducts mountain snowpack surveys monthly from February 1 to June 1. The data is published monthly in the water supply outlook.

In addition to the monthly snowpack surveys, the Alberta River Basins web application and the Alberta Rivers app provides automated snow pillow data from 18 sites, mostly in the mountains and foothills.

• The final snow surveys for 2026 were conducted around June 1. This work will resume in winter 2027.

Summer precipitation amounts for May through July are normal to well above normal across most of the province.

The Red Deer, Bow, Oldman and Milk basins saw, on average, between 15% and 40% of their normal July precipitation amounts. Central and northeastern Alberta saw higher localized amounts due to thunderstorm activity.

Accumulated precipitation and percent of normal maps are available on the Alberta River Basins web application and the Alberta Rivers app: previous month, winter, fall and summer seasonal amounts and the complete water year.

Alberta’s river monitoring network includes over 450 gauges that report near real-time data via the Alberta River Basins web application and the Alberta Rivers app during the open water season.

Water storage volumes in the major irrigation and hydroelectric reservoirs of the Milk, Oldman, Bow, Red Deer, North Saskatchewan, and Athabasca River basins are updated each weekday and available in the Provincial Reservoir Storage Summary.

Alberta Agriculture and Irrigation produces a soil moisture report periodically during the winter months, with frequency increasing during the growing season.

• Soil moisture report