2013 Flood will be studied for years to come
Posted Jun 25, 2013 12:31 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Alberta Environment and Sustainable Resource Development provided a flood update Tuesday.
A State of local emergency is still in effect in 22 communities, including Calgary.
Just over 26 thousand people remain out of their homes in southern Alberta, with most of the evacuees in High River.
The province is hoping to announce details of its cash card program for evacuees in the next day or so.
Scientists, meteorologists and river forecasters describe the storm as one for the record books.
A system called an “up slope flow effect,” pushed a huge storm containing lots of moisture up against the Rockies producing large amounts of rain, even at higher elevations.
325 millimetres of rain fell west of High River producing flash flood conditions.
The ESRD’s Nick Nimchuck says averages don’t mean much in Alberta because in this part of the world, we often have to deal with weather extremes, suggesting averages are something we only hit going up or down.
Data from the storm will be studied in the coming months and years, in the hopes the information will help improve weather and river forecasting.
The high water also destroyed a number of water monitoring gauges, some of which will have to be moved to different areas, because the flood changed the path of some rivers and streams.
