Qu’Appelle River Watershed Updates

Updated October 13, 2026

• Most of the lakes in the Qu’Appelle system are slightly above their targeted October operating ranges and generally declining, except for Katepwa and Round Lakes, where levels are rising due to upstream operations.
• Fall operations were carried out last week for Echo and Crooked Lakes. Two more operations are expected for Echo Lake in coming weeks.
• Last Mountain Lake is high, sitting about 20 cm above the top of its October operating range. The lake is receding slowly with the Craven structure fully open.

• The Qu’Appelle River Dam release is 2 m³/s. This flow is expected to be maintained, and no operation is planned at this time.
• Inflow to Buffalo Pound Lake is 1.7 m³/s
• There is currently 1.2 m³/s outflow from Buffalo Pound Lake.
• Buffalo Pound Lake is at 509.42 m, which is 10 cm above the top of October operating level (509.32 m), and has remained stable since last week.

• The water level of Wascana Lake at the Marina is 570.6 m, which slightly above the required target elevation.
• Due to ongoing construction work, the City of Regina requested a target elevation of about 570.52 m for Wascana Lake, which is 7 cm below FSL
• No operations are planned at this time.

• Last Mountain Lake is currently at 490.2 m, which is 20 cm above the top of October operating range (490.00 m). Despite fluctuations over the past month, the lake has been gradually receding, but the decline remains slow even though the Craven Dam gates remain fully open.
  • Outflow: about 10.1 m³/s to the Qu’Appelle River from Last Mountain Lake.
  • Qu’Appelle River near Lumsden: 2.9 m³/s.
  • Release from the Craven Control structure: 13 m³/s.
• There are minimal contributions from the northern tributaries of Last Mountain Lake.
• No operations are currently planned for this structure in the near future.

• Pasqua and Echo lakes are currently at 478.9 m, which is 6 cm above the top of October operating range (478.84 m).
• The first of three fall operations was carried out last week, lowering the lake level by about 13 cm. Levels are now stable. The second fall operation, involving removal of additional stoplogs, is expected late this week or early next week.

• Mission and Katepwa lakes are currently at 478.35 m, which is 12 cm above the crest of the weir (478.23 m).
• The current release from the Katepwa Lake control structure is 10 m³/s, and outflow from the lake continues to be constrained by backwater effects.
• Due to the fall operation at Echo Lake, the level has risen about 3 cm since last week and is now stable.

• Inflow to Crooked Lake, as indicated by the Qu’Appelle River at Hyde gauge, is about 17 m³/s, which is well above normal for this time of year.
• Fall operation to remove stoplogs was carried out last week, resulting in a lake‑level drop of 0.18 m over the five days following the operation.
• The water level at Crooked Lake is 451.48 m, which is 8 cm below the top of the October operating range (451.56 m). The lake level is expected to continue declining slowly.

• The water level at Round Lake is 442.23 m and has risen about 0.12 m since late last week due to upstream fall operations. The current level is above the top of the October operating range but is expected to decline slowly.

Observed:

• About 5–15 mm of precipitation was recorded last week, with most of it occurring yesterday in the southern portion of the basin. No significant rainfall occurred in other parts of the basin over the past week.

Forecast:

• No significant rainfall is forecasted for the next 7 days.

Seven‑day total precipitation (mm) across the Qu’Appelle River Basin:

Forecasted total precipitation (in millimeters) for the upcoming seven days, based on the Canadian GEM model: