Drought – Current conditions

As of April 11, there are 33 water shortage advisories in place for select water management areas across Alberta.

• Alberta Rivers - advisories

Based on 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.

• Water supply outlook (May 2025)

The Water Supply Outlook is a long-term river volume forecast for the period from May through September.

Based on May data, the forecasted river volumes for the May-to-September period are estimated to be similar to slightly below those observed last year.

Highlights of the Water Supply Outlook are below for the May-to-September period:

• Milk River basin – Much below average forecasted
• Oldman River basin – Much below average forecasted
• Bow River basin – Below average to much below average forecasted
• Red Deer River basin – Below average forecasted
• North Saskatchewan River basin – Below average forecasted.

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.

This May, 38 mountain snow surveys were completed: 16 were much below average; 15 were below average and 5 were average and above.

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.

Periodic updates on flow data for major rivers in Alberta will resume in this section in April.

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.

Periodic updates on water levels in select reservoirs in southern Alberta will resume in this section in April.

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

• Soil moisture report (April 30, 2025)