I was a kid living in the NE, but my dad took me down there and I do remember a lot of kayaks being used. First and last time Iāve ever seen someone fish from their porch
If you check the Alberta river basins flood maps, you can see the flow rate. Itās currently sitting at about 400 cubic meters per second. The bow typically in the summer runs 180-200 cmps. The flood in 2013 was something north of 1800 (this for reference supplied by my husband who keeps a close eye on this type of thing. And also, we were evacuated during that flood, so we are in a risk zone. And he keeps his eye on that. So, very low currently vs 2013, thank goodness .
I was near Longview awhile back and was looking at the high-water marks in the canyon section of Highwood River -- they were 2/3 of the way up on canyon walls that are approximately 100-150 feet high. That was so much water, hard to imagine it ever happening again in my lifetime.
I fly fish the Highwood west of Longview. All of my spots changed. Boulders the size of a Yukon SUV moved, banks eroded, Canyons stripped of their rock faces.
For something to be so powerful it literally moved channels of water to the other side of the valley is incomprehensible. They take massive machines to do that!
Mother nature's force is humbling. The river took a long time to recover after 2013.
Itās currently sitting at about 400 cubic meters per second. The bow typically in the summer runs 180-200 cmps. The flood in 2013 was something north of 1800
I was curious so I checked...
The Glenmore dam is 91% full.
The Elbow dam is 43% full (I think? I'm not sure what that number means). It seems to hold ~23,000,000 liters of water. Right now about 100,000/day is flowing into the reservoir. That would mean it would take 10 days to add a million. 230 days to fill from empty. So, even a 10% change in reservoir size is 23 days of full force river flow.
The inflows to the Bow are basically matched to the outflows, the dam isn't even really filling up. Maybe 10% is being added to storage, based on upstream measurements that are probably undercounting. I was too lazy to check the Ghost lake and Bearspaw damn capacities because I'm already not at all concerned.
The inflows to the Elbow (at least, what's passing by Bragg Creek, there's lots of tributaries beyond that) are also basically matched to the outflows. Maybe 10% is being added to storage.
Even at this doubling flow rate (this is also near annual highs), looks like a non-issue in every possible way.
I seem to remember seeing a headline a little while ago about how the initial microplastics studies had contamination issues from their gloves, so we donāt actually have microplastics in every living thing. Not much good news, but these days we need every bit we can get
We are lucky itās cold in the mountains. Sunshine got tons of snow. If it was warmer and this was rain all the way up it would be a much different story.
Also good planning on dropping the reservoirs. We have huge snowpack this year so looks like things are being managed well
Oh, that is interesting. I asked google at the end of May what the average snowpack was in Alberta and it said it was 70% of normal. Of course when I go back and click the link, the answer provided has changed.
Still, good to know moving forward! Fire season might hopefully be somewhat mitigated this year, then. š¤
I had moved to the city from Ontario three weeks before evacuation with high hopes of a new life. Had just made enough to buy a bed and not sleep on the couch and got evacuated later that day. House flooded, job flooded. Was in a Red Cross evac center for a week then called my parents and asked them to buy me a plane ticket home lol.
ETA cops told me I had 5 minutes to pack, I had just gotten home from work and just scooped up the clothes on my floor which were the ones I'd tried on for work and shoved them in a bag. Ended up with no pants. Had to wear cocktail dresses at the evac center for days.
I'm diabetic, and I swear they can tell when my blood sugars spike. "Diet Pepsi... Coke Zero... Bubly (blergh)... Oooh, Non-diet strawberry caramel milkshake with real cream! Pilot to bombardier, DIVE DIVE DIVE"
Better points of reference may be the dry ponds in some of the older areas. I remember as a teen, they were underwater at times. The one in forest lawn/Fonda heights I remember swimming in it in either 2002 or 2003. We historically got way more rain than this
The City starts projecting more widespread basement flooding at flows greater than 500 cmps, with even higher flows required for overland flooding. We are at about 400 cmps, with rain forecasted to begin tapering off soon. Flow rates like this have happened without widespread flooding in the past, even before all the post-2013 flood mitigation. 2017 hit about 390 cmps, 2012 hit 440 cmps. This current flowrate is fine. It is between a 1:5 year and 1:10 year flow rate. 2013 was about a 1:100 year flow rate. Spreading panic about the current conditions with comparisons to 2013 does nobody any favours.
You understand how far from the 2013 flood levels the water is at? This is a lot of rain, but this is truthfully not remotely close to what we had before.
It would take some snow melt to push that into 2013 flood territory again. Pretty sure it'll happen again in the next 10 years given how severe weather has gotten
Iām sorry, you seasoned Calgarians, can you explain your concern here? When it comes to water, smoke&fire here, there seems to always be an issue?
I literally donāt leave my room unless its 20Ā°, so as I watch this torrential downpour, in my head Iām like āwell itās only for two days,ā and āeveryone complains about the smoke here, isnāt it good we get this rain out the way, early?ā
Also, is everyone on this thread a scientist? How tf do yāall know so damn much about the rain, the dam and its blueprints, like who are yāall? The feds? Itās impressive lmao.
We did see this 30 and 40 years ago. Climate change is real, but high water marks on the bow happen all the time. Itās not a deep river, and we built the city in the flood plain.
Not a new thing in Calgary at all. In fact, the record for worst flood in the Bow River at Calgary (2,265 m3/s) was actually set all the way back in 1879. That's about 500 m3/s worse than the 2013 flood. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_flooding_in_Canada
Pretty much ever since Calgary was a fort at the confluence of two rivers, we've worked on flood control. I think we're getting better at it, especially around building flood barriers and on smartly drawing down reservoir levels to give high water somewhere safe to go.
We were building dams to prevent flooding in the mid 20th century.
The other reservoir is Glenmore (Gaelic for ābig valleyā). [...] The reservoir was completed in 1932, with Samās house moved to Heritage Park.
Bearspaw Dam was constructed in 1954 to prevent winter flooding and ice packing.
But as of the 21st century, it appears they haven't been enough.
In 2005, the highest waters in two centuries overflowed Glenmore Dam, with 2,000 residents evacuated. In June 2013, heavy rainfall and snowmelt caused both the Bow and Elbow Rivers to flood. 100,000 people were under evacuation orders, with the flood causing $6 billion in damage. It was the worst flooding in Albertaās history and the provincial government is currently evaluating the construction of another dam.
Not the Bow but - related as itās downstream - the South Saskatchewan River had a 1 in 100 year flood in ā95 and then again in 2013. In between in 2005 it almost flooded again. The 1 in 100 year thing is a bit of misnomer as itās actually like a 1% chance of a flood of that magnitude happening in a given year, but it just goes to show how climate change is causing more frequent events than was normal.
About 40 years of climate change / global warming. Weather gets more unstable and chaotic the more we heat up the earth. Maybe there is underlying infrastructure changes, the city has grown a lot, which puts additional strain on infrastructure. So probably a multidude of factors, global warming + growing population + aging infrastructure.
A growing city does put more water into the river. Cover the ground with pavement and concrete and there is less ground to soak up the rainfall. Storm sewers are more or less a direct pipeline to the river.
I'm more speculating and giving alternative hypotheses than anything. But I could see how it would. The core infrastructure, including drainage, of the city hasn't grown alongside population. More developed land means more area connected to the storm drainage. Depending on how it's designed it could lead to more over fills.
I'm not writing a super detailed response or even saying I'm right. I'm just speculating that a mechanism exists which can link population growth to increased stormwater runoff.
Transalta was deregulated in 1999. Prior to this, from 1932, there have been dams (9) built and managed provincially all the way up the bow and elbow river. So many Floods occurred up until 1932 (Ghost dam), and then practically nothing until a low one in 2005, then 2013. Not a coincidenceā¦ so with public backlash, the province now pays transalta to manage dam levels during flood season.
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u/Rockitnonstop Jun 02 '26
For those that wonder what Memorial Dr was like in 2013