Qu’Appelle River Watershed Updates

Updated July 6, 2026

• Most of the lakes in the Qu’Appelle system are near or above the top of their targeted summer operating range.
• Last Mountain Lake is high this spring, now sitting about 26 cm above the top of its summer operating range. The lake is receding slowly even with the Craven structure fully open.

• The Qu’Appelle River Dam release is maintained at about 5 m³/s.
• Inflow to the Buffalo Pound Lake is 4.5 m³/s.
• Buffalo Pound Lake is at 509.64 m, which is about 17 cm above the top of the summer operating range. With increased use and evaporation, the lake is expected to start receding in the coming days.
• There is currently an outflow of 3.0 m³/s from Buffalo Pound Lake. The release was increased early last week to help draw down the lake level.

• The water level of the Wascana Lake at Marina is at 570.57 m, about 5 cm higher than the required summer 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
• There is currently a release of 0.7 m³/s from the lake, and it will be terminated later this week as the level approaches the target elevation.

• Last Mountain Lake is currently at 490.53 m, which is 26 cm above the top of the summer operating range (490.27 m). The lake has been receding since late May but rose recently due to rainfall events. Despite this, the overall decline remains slow even with the Craven Dam gates fully open.
  • Outflow: about 8 m³/s to the Qu’Appelle River from the Last Mountain Lake
  • Qu’Appelle River near Lumsden is about 16 m³/s
  • Release from the Craven Control structure: 24 m³/s
• Inflow from the northern tributaries to Last Mountain Lake—Lanigan Creek and Saline Creek—is about 9.5 m³/s. Flows have risen slightly since July 1 due to rainfall runoff. Although the flows are small, they remain well above normal for this time of year.
• No operations are currently planned for this structure in the near future.

• Pasqua and Echo lakes are currently at 479.15 m, which is right at the top of the summer operating level (479.15 m).
• With upcoming flows from Moose Jaw River, the lake is expected to continue gradually rising. The conditions will be closely monitored, and some stop logs may need to be removed later this week.

• Mission and Katepwa lakes are currently at 478.47 m, which is 24 cm high from the top of the summer operating range (i.e., crest of the weir, 478.23 m).
• The release will be increased from 1.6 m³/s to up to 3 m³/s this week to draw the lake level down into the summer operating range.

• Inflows to Crooked Lake are about 21 m³/s, which is well above normal for this time of year.
• The water level at Crooked Lake is at 451.7 m this morning, which is 1 cm below the top of summer operating level of 451.71 m.
• No operations are planned this week, and the structure remains fully open.

• The water level of Round Lake is 442.34 m.
• Although the lake is currently within its operating range, the inability to operate the control structure means Round Lake will continue to decline gradually and is expected to be near the bottom of the desirable operating range later in the summer.

Observed:

• About 10–60 mm of rainfall was observed across the basin over the past week, with the highest amounts—close to 60 mm—from the Quill Lake area down to the Moose Jaw region. This rainfall caused localized flooding in certain areas, including near Avonlea Reservoir early last week.

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: