Qu’Appelle River Watershed Updates

Updated August 17, 2026

• Most of the lakes in the Qu’Appelle system are within their targeted summer operating ranges.
• Last Mountain Lake is high, sitting about 17 cm above the top of its summer operating range. The lake is receding slowly with the Craven structure fully open.

• The Qu’Appelle River Dam release is 4.5 m³/s. This flow is expected to be maintained, and no operation is planned at this time.
• Inflow to Buffalo Pound Lake is 4 m³/s
• Buffalo Pound Lake is at 509.37 m, which is about 10 cm below the targeted summer operating level of 509.47 m, and has remained stable since last week.
• Last week on Tuesday, the release was adjusted from 3 m³/s to 2 m³/s to keep the lake level within the normal operating range.

• The water level of Wascana Lake at the Marina is at 570.49 m, slightly below 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
• The release from Wascana Lake was terminated on July 8, and no further operations are planned at this time.

• Last Mountain Lake is currently at 490.29 m, which is 17 cm above the top of the summer operating range (490.12 m). Despite fluctuations over the past two months, the lake has been gradually receding, but the decline remains slow even though the Craven Dam gates remain fully open.
  • Outflow: about 11.5 m³/s to the Qu’Appelle River from Last Mountain Lake.
  • Qu’Appelle River near Lumsden flow: 1.5 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 478.99 m, which is 16 cm below the top of the summer operating level (479.15 m).
• Last Thursday, a few stoplogs were added to adjust the release from Echo Lake, and no further operations are planned for this week.
• Current water levels are expected to be maintained.

• Mission and Katepwa lakes are currently at 478.33 m, which is 5 cm below the top of the summer operating range (478.38 m).
• The current release from the Katepwa Lake control structure is 8 m³/s. This release has helped draw Katepwa Lake down and has supported maintaining levels at Crooked Lake.
• No further operations are planned for this week.

• Inflow to Crooked Lake, as indicated by the Qu’Appelle River at Hyde gauge, is about 13 m³/s, which is well above normal for this time of year. The Crooked Lake control structure remains fully open to pass this flow.
• Due to ongoing structural and operational constraints, the current summer target level for Crooked Lake is towards the bottom end of its normal August operating range (451.41 m).
• The water level at Crooked Lake is 451.49 m, which is 8 cm above the current target level of 451.41 m.
• No operations are planned for this week.

• The water level of Round Lake is 442.18 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 at the end of August.

Observed:

No significant rain has occurred in the basin over the past week.

Forecast:

Isolated showers and thunderstorms are expected to bring less than 10 mm of rainfall to parts of the basin over the next seven 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: