Water levels in the Slave River watershed remain at historic lows and glaciers in British Columbia which feed the watershed's tributaries are melting twice as fast as they were a decade ago, according to a new study out of the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC).
However, GNWT officials are optimistic melting snow and summer rains in the Mackenzie River watershed will be stable, at least in the short term.
"Glaciers in the mountains are a crucial source of fresh water for the Athabasca and Peace Rivers," said Thomas Bentham, senior communications officer with the Department of Environment and Climate Change. "These rivers flow into the Slave River, which is the biggest river feeding into Great Slave Lake.
"In the long term, as glaciers shrink, there may be changes to the water flow at the beginning of the Athabasca and Peace Rivers. But farther north in the Mackenzie River basin, the loss of glacier meltwater will likely be balanced out by more rainfall expected due to climate change."
According to the NWT's monthly water bulletin, which was released July 8, water levels in Great Slave Lake are well below average and have been steadily diminishing over the month. Great Bear Lake is at its lowest levels ever recorded at this point in the year. The Slave, Liard, Mackenzie and Great Bear Rivers are all experiencing below-average flow rates.
The Peel and South Nahanni Rivers are holding at average flow rate. The smaller Snare and Hoarfrost rivers are also at a steady flow rate, while the Taltson, Lockhart and Tazin rivers are above average flow.
Abnormally low water is presenting a lot of challenges in the North. Marine Transportation Services, which supplies food and fuel to remote communities such as Fort Good Hope and Norman Wells by barge, has struggled to meet demand with increasingly short safe shipping windows.
These low flows in the NWT are being blamed on ongoing drought conditions in northern Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, which have been experiencing abnormally dry conditions since 2022, creating widespread fire hazards which is causing massive forest fires during the summer months. Manitoba has declared two states of emergency this year due to forest fires.
All these fires are creating a lot of ash, which according to a UNBC study published in the peer-reviewed journal Geophysics Research Letters in June is accumulating on glaciers in the mountains.
Data examined by Dr. Brian Menounos found that the ash makes the ice a darker colour, which causes it to absorb heat faster and therefore melt faster. His research looked at ash-cladded glaciers the Rocky Mountains of North America and how dust from the Sahara desert is accumulating in the Swiss Alps. He did not examine glaciers in Yukon or Alaska.
NNSL Media reached out to Menounos for further clarification on his research but did not receive a response. The study itself says glaciers that were studied have lost twice as much mass each year this decade than they had last decade.
"Over the period 2021SA国际影视传媒�2024, glaciers in both regions experienced a doubling of melt rates compared to the previous decade," he wrote. "Glaciers lost 12 per cent (in Western Canada and United States) and 13 (in Switzerland) of their total 2020 volume over this fourSA国际影视传媒恲ear period.
"This iceSA国际影视传媒恆lbedo feedback will lead to continued high rates of thinning unless recently exposed dark ice and firn at high elevations is buried by seasonal snowfall."
