While most people enjoyed the past winter’s lack of snow and warmer overall temperatures, one impact of the unusual weather is becoming evident in the Thames River and its tributaries.
The Upper Thames River Low Water Response Team (LWRT) has declared that the Upper Thames River watershed is in a Level 1 Low Water Condition.
Low water conditions are evaluated by looking at several indicators, including precipitation over the past three months, and stream flows over the past month.
Precipitation from January to March was well below the normal range across the watershed. By the end of March, stream flows were also significantly below normal for this time of year.
“We had a really unusual winter,” said Mark Shifflett, Senior Water Resources Engineer at the Upper Thames River Conservation Authority (UTRCA). “Precipitation was below normal and temperatures were above normal, so any snow that we had melted quickly. The result was we had no significant accumulation of snowpack in the Upper Thames watershed this winter.”
The melting winter snowpack typically feeds into rivers and streams in late winter and early spring, contributing to high flows at this time of year. Flows usually drop in the summer.
“There is concern that these dry conditions may continue and worsen in the summer months, when water demands are higher,” explained Mark.
A Level 1 Low Water Condition is part of a three-tiered advisory system used in Ontario to inform the public of local low water conditions. Level 3 is the most severe low water advisory level.
The Upper Thames LWRT includes representatives from agencies and industries across the watershed, including municipal government, the UTRCA, and several provincial ministries, as well as the local golf course, agricultural, and aggregate sectors.
The Upper Thames watershed includes the communities of Mitchell, Stratford, and St. Marys in the north, and Woodstock, Ingersoll, and London in the south, as well as surrounding rural areas and smaller communities.
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