this post was submitted on 12 Feb 2024
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Drought concerns in the winter in Vancouver is one hell of a thought
The concern is not inadequate volume of precipitation.
The problem is: not enough of the precipitation is snow. We rely on alpine snow melt feeding creeks and rivers gradually through the dry months.
Edit to add: We may have to develop water treatment options that can make brackish river water more usable.
I keep hearing about concerns about reservoir levels as well though.
If it was just the difference of melt water to prevent fire conditions, we wouldn't also be hearing about reservoir levels as the rain would end up there either way?
Around here (southern Saskatchewan), it doesn't take much snow to generate a lot of runoff compared to major dumps of rain. Probably because the snow melt is running over frozen ground. I know spring is here when all of a sudden the big puddle in back of our place just disappears overnight.
So the runoff makes it further along than the rain would is what you're saying?
I'm far from being any kind of expert, but yes, that's the way it looks to me.
The pavement and hard packed gravel roads run pretty close to the same, whether it's meltwater or rain, but the dirt roads, ditches, hills and coulees run very differently. My guess is that with meltwater, the ground is still frozen, so can't absorb the water.