Qu’Appelle River Watershed Updates

Updated October 19, 2026

• Most of the lakes in the Qu’Appelle system are near or within their target operating ranges for October.
• The second of the three fall operations for Echo Lake is planned for October 20. This operation is expected to further reduce the lake level.
• Last Mountain Lake is high, sitting about 16 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 2.0 m³/s. The release is expected to be paused by the end of this week for about three weeks, after which it will resume.
• Inflow to Buffalo Pound Lake is 1.5 m³/s
• The outflow from Buffalo Pound Lake is currently 1.2 m³/s.
• Buffalo Pound Lake is at 509.39 m, which is 7 cm above the top of October’s operating range (509.32 m), and has remained stable since early October.

• The water level of Wascana Lake at the Marina is at 570.58 m, slightly above the target elevation.
• Due to ongoing construction activities, the City of Regina requested a target elevation of about 570.52 m for Wascana Lake, which is 7 cm below FSL
• No further operations are planned at this time.

• Last Mountain Lake is currently at 490.16 m, which is 16 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 9.4 m³/s to the Qu’Appelle River from Last Mountain Lake.
  • Flow in Qu’Appelle River near Lumsden: 2.6 m³/s.
  • Release from the Craven Control structure: 12 m³/s.
• No operations are currently planned for this structure in the near future.

• Pasqua and Echo lakes are currently at 478.84 m, which is the same as the top of October operating range (478.84 m).
• The second of the three fall operations is planned for October 20. Stoplogs of 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 4, 0, and 0 will be removed from Bays 1 through 8. Following this operation, lake levels are expected to be further reduced.
• The final operation, during which all remaining stoplogs will be removed, is tentatively planned for late October or early November, depending on lake levels and weather conditions.

• Mission and Katepwa lakes are currently at 478.32 m, which is 9 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.
• With the second fall operation at Echo Lake, the level is expected to rise slightly beginning early October 21.

• Inflow to Crooked Lake is about 15 m³/s, which is well above normal for this time of year.
• The water level at Crooked Lake is at 451.38 m, which is 18 cm below the top of October operating range of 451.56 m.
• The recent reduction in lake level was primarily caused by the fall operation conducted on October 8. The level is expected to continue declining, with some fluctuations possible due to upstream operations in the coming weeks.

• The water level of Round Lake is 442.2 m.
• The recent rise in lake level was due to upstream fall operations. Although the current level is above the top of the October operating range, it is expected to decline slowly.

Observed:

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

Forecast:

• About 10–30 mm of precipitation is forecast for the western portion of the basin over the next seven days. Lesser amounts are expected across the eastern portion of the basin.

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: