The Water Security released their forecast for the spring run-off Wednesday.

While the month of February was bitterly cold, there was some good to come from it. The forecast for the Weyburn area is below normal.

“That was actually somewhat of an upgrade from what the potential was in February, and that’s due to the increased amount of snowfall and the snowpack we did see in the month of February,” explained Patrick Boyle, the spokesperson for the Water Security Agency.

One of the major factors for the below normal forecast is the conditions we saw in southeast Saskatchewan before winter arrived. The dry conditions in the summer and fall continued into the winter freeze-up, leading to the call for a below normal run-off. The forecast isn’t set in stone, however.

“There’s a lot of people that hate when I say this, but there’s still about six weeks of winter left, so we could see more snowfall,” Boyle added. The snow in the spring tends to be heavier, with a higher moisture content, which would change the runoff forecast. Rainfall during the melt would also be a factor which could accelerate things.

Provincially, the WSA is calling for a below-normal run-off in the far north, a near normal run-off in the central parts of the province, and a below normal run-off for the southern parts of the province.