A large swath of the province is expected to have below normal or well below normal spring runoff.

The new forecast map from the Saskatchewan Water Security Agency (WSA) puts North Battleford, Outlook, Elbow, Watrous, Wynyard, Yorkton and Regina in the below normal category.

“As you go further south in that Moose Jaw, Assiniboia, Estevan and Weyburn—those areas are well below normal,” said WSA spokesperson Patrick Boyle. “They just didn’t get a lot of snowfall this winter.”

The runoff forecast is more promising in central areas that were in path of a major November snow storm. This includes the Leader, Kindersley, Rosetown, Saskatoon, Prince Albert and Melfort areas.

“We went out in late February and (measured) the snowfall equivalent or how much moisture is in the snow,” Boyle said. “It showed some higher levels of snowpack in some pockets in the central part of Saskatchewan, especially in that Saskatoon area.”

The only area anticipating above normal runoff is the extreme northern portion of the province—Uranium City, Stony Rapids, Collins Bay and Cluff Lake. While the snowpack is not heavy, there were extremely wet conditions last fall. At this point, unless there is significant precipitation or a rapid melt, flooding is considered a low risk.