PELICAN LAKE 2024
January 14 - There has been a good snow adding about 0.03 feet water equivalent. It's now very cold.
February 4 - January was unusually warm and not very much snow left. In Winnipeg it was the 11th warmest January on record.
February 23 - It continues to be dry and warm, there has been little change in lake level.
March 4 - A significant storm added about 50 mm (2 inches) to the lake level. For Winnipeg it has been the second warmest winter (Dec, Jan, Feb) and eighth driest driest on record.
March 8 - The chart has been adjusted to reflect better levels. The lake is about 1350.95.
March 21 - See this report for the government's outlook.
April 8 - It appears all the snow has melted and there is little or no rise in the lake. Without rain the lake may not rise above the current level of 1351.07. This is the median level for this date since 1962. The median level rises 0.7 feet, peaking in early May.
April 18 - Looks like the lake is ice free, 4 days before the median ice free date since 1976. There's been a little over an inch of rain the past week.
May 13- It appears the lake has peaked at almost 1351.6.
May 25- A good shot of rain and some snow over two days has raised the lake about 2.5 inches. It may have been enough to create some runoff.
May 27-It appears the inflow is roughly 6 cubic meters per second and the level is almost 1352 so gate(s) will have to be opened.
June 1- The level today is about 1351.9. The lake has been higher on June 1 in 13 years since 1954, only 4 years since the project was built despite much higher inflows. The highest was 2011 at 1353.7 and lowest in 1991 at 1346.6 feet. The median level is 1351.05. This year was one of the wettest May's on record. Total precipitation was about 160 mm (normal 70 mm) and the average temperature about 11.7 C, near normal.
August 1- Although July was warm (average 20.8) and dry (about 1 inch of rain) the level held up quite well. The water temperature peaked at 27 yesterday. The level is just a bit below the upper decile level for the period since 1994 for this date.
September 1- About 2.5 inches of rain through August (near normal) keeping the level higher than normal for this time of year. The level is about 3 inches below the upper decile for the 1994 to 2023 period.
October 31 - September saw a little over an inch of rain and October virtually nothing so the area is very dry. The lake level is barely over 1351, a reasonable level for this time of year. Last year the level was the same almost two months earlier.
November 23 - The gauge indicates a level of 1350.4. That seems too low because less a week ago it was 1350.8 and there has been almost an inch of precipitation. The lake was frozen over on November22, about a week later than normal.