There were record amounts of snow in the mountains this winter, and that was great for skiers and snowboarders, but what happens when all that snow melts?
All of the snow in the mountains this year presents a risk of flooding when it melts and hits our streams and rivers.
Global News went for a chopper ride in the mountains as Alberta Environment went to the measure the snowpack.
Officials recorded the depth and density of the snow in Banff National Park, the headwaters for the Bow River basin and parts of the Red Deer River basin.
They found the sites were above average, from 130 per cent to 180 per cent higher than usual.
That makes this year one of the top five in the past 25 years.
Still, Alberta Environment cautions it’s way too soon to predict flood waters later this spring.
Our winter this year was so dry the Foothills should easily absorb some of the runoff.
The City of Calgary will also be closely watching the situation over the next two weeks.
The City uses dams at the Glenmore and Bearspaw reservoirs to control the runoff.
The snow survey is done at the exact same sites every month throughout the winter, year after year , to build the database and improve forecasting models .
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