It’s spring! It’s spring!
Even the character Babar the Elephant would be taken aback if he saw the amount of snow still sitting on the ground. It’s hard to believe today is the first day of spring.
With an estimated 63 centimetres of snow on the ground right now, Environment Canada senior climatologist David Phillips said Moose Jaw has had a total of 147 centimeters of snowfall since October. It’s likely this year we’ve seen a record snowfall.
The most recent snowfall was over the weekend. According to the Environment Canada forecast, as of Tuesday morning, there is a 30 per cent chance of flurries on Thursday and another 30 per cent chance of flurries on Saturday. It seems the winter will never end and the snow will never melt.
However, at some point in the hopefully near future, the snow will be gone. Some melting has already taken place. Moose Jaw has a high risk of flooding this year. Even though more snowfall could occur, and despite all the snow that still remains on the ground, it’s prudent to be prepared for flooding.
It’s not time for us to panic. Just because we’ve had record snowfall doesn’t mean we’ll have record flooding. But it doesn’t mean we won’t have record flooding, either.
Phillips said there is an estimated 63 centimeters of snow on the ground right now. Let’s hope the snow won’t melt all at once, otherwise we will have major flooding issues.
Yet we can’t base our actions on solely our hope. It’s necessary to shovel snow away from basements and the foundation of houses to try to minimize flooding. If you’re on a property near the river, getting sandbags in place is also a very important measure to take.
It’s possible we’ll see flooding levels equal to or worse than in 2011. It’s necessary to be as prepared as possible to try to avoid the high damage levels as reported in 2011.
That’s not just residential either. For instance we know how much damage was incurred upon the CPR dam in 2011. There is still no new dam in place. If we see those levels of flooding again the dam will likely be non-existent.
In short, we need to brace ourselves for the worst. It doesn’t hurt anybody to be over-prepared for anything. The worst-case scenario is being unprepared for the worst that may be on its way.
