{"id":665282,"date":"2026-05-12T21:48:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T21:48:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/665282\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T21:48:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T21:48:09","slug":"what-metro-vancouvers-low-snowpack-means-for-our-water-supply-daily-hive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/665282\/","title":{"rendered":"What Metro Vancouver’s low snowpack means for our water supply | Daily Hive"},"content":{"rendered":"

Given that we\u2019ve already experienced record-breaking temperatures<\/a> and water restrictions, <\/a>you might not be surprised to learn that the Metro Vancouver snowpack is less than half of what it should be.<\/p>\n

On May 8, the B.C.\u2019s River Forecast Centre published its May 1 snow survey and water supply bulletin<\/a>, showing that snowpack in the South Coast is 45 per cent of normal and 59 per cent of normal in the Lower Fraser, the two basins that Metro Vancouver sits in.<\/p>\n

B.C.\u2019s annual snow accumulation generally hits its peak levels in mid-April, and the May 1 snow bulletin gives an insight into the timing of the snow melt. Because most of April was warm and dry in much of B.C., snowmelt began earlier than normal at lower elevations.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re seeing double-digit temperatures right to the mountaintop. So that means things are melting fairly quickly. I don\u2019t want to say that it\u2019s never happened before. We had very little snowpack in 2015 as well. But it\u2019s certainly not normal,\u201d said Heidi Walsh, Metro Vancouver\u2019s director of watershed and environmental management for water services.<\/p>\n

The bulletin adds that temperatures throughout April were above normal across the southern regions of B.C., with several locations \u2014 including Vancouver \u2014 recording monthly mean temperatures approximately 0.5\u00b0C to 1.5\u00b0C above normal.<\/p>\n

In the first week of May<\/a>, we saw temperatures spike far beyond seasonal norms, resulting in the \u201crapid melt\u201d of snowpack.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

B.C. River Forecast Centre\/Supplied<\/p>\n

Further, the seasonal outlook from Environment and Climate Change Canada points towards above-normal temperatures from May to July, especially in the coastal and southern B.C. areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s challenging conditions this year, with a combination of low snowpack, we\u2019ve had a really warm, dry April, and then the conditions predictions looking forward are for a hot, dry spring and summer. So all that put together, it\u2019s definitely abnormal,\u201d said Walsh.<\/p>\n

How does this impact us?<\/p>\n

Snowpack is important because it acts as water storage<\/a>. Instead of rain, which immediately washes through the system, it stays up in the mountains, delaying the release of that water into the spring and summer.<\/p>\n

Metro Vancouver has three water reservoirs that supply the region with water, one in Coquitlam and two in North Vancouver.<\/p>\n

Walsh said that we can think about the reservoirs like \u201cbathtubs\u201d that get filled up with rain in the fall and winter. In the spring, normal water inflows and snowmelt both typically keep the reservoirs topped up.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year it\u2019s like the tap has been turned down,\u201d said Walsh.\u00a0\u201cOur snow melt is going to run out quite a bit earlier than normal.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said that if there\u2019s a dry, hot spring and summer, we also won\u2019t get the needed rainfall to top the reservoirs up.<\/p>\n

Normally, snow melt happens in late June. But this year, Walsh said they are predicting it to end by mid-June, about three weeks to one month earlier than normal.<\/p>\n

What can we do about it?
\n\"\"<\/p>\n

Hanna Hett\/Daily Hive<\/p>\n

In Metro Vancouver, average water use is about 1 billion litres per day. In the summer months, outdoor water use (through activities like lawn watering) balloons to a whopping 1.5 billion litres each day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we go into that peak usage, it\u2019s like the drains pulled wide open, and then we can have really quick drawdown at a reservoir,\u201d Walsh said.<\/p>\n

This is why the Metro Vancouver Regional District has already geared up. In a normal year, it limits residents and businesses to watering their lawns just once per week<\/a>. This year, however, it moved straight into Stage 2 water restrictions<\/a>, prohibiting lawn watering entirely, along with rules that you can\u2019t fill aesthetic water features or wash surfaces like driveways or sidewalks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t really control the snowpack, we can\u2019t control the weather, but we can control how much water we\u2019re using,\u201d said Walsh.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Given that we\u2019ve already experienced record-breaking temperatures and water restrictions, you might not be surprised to learn that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":665283,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194298],"tags":[49,48,55],"class_list":["post-665282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vancouver","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=665282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/665282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/665283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=665282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=665282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=665282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}