The government of Alberta expects to release an app for iPhones and iPads that will provide real time information on high stream flow advisories, flood watches and flood warnings.
Andy Lamb, flood recovery manager with the province, said the app is one part of several initiatives being undertaken by the government to build a better flood forecast system and provide better information to the public.
“It is a constant process of continuous improvement for our system and lessons learned from last year to improve our systems,” Lamb said Monday (May 5) at a flood preparedness open house in Canmore. “(The mobile app) is something we have been working on and are trying to get it up and running; it should be available mid-May.
“The idea is that you get the app loaded on your iPhone or iPad and you will be able to go directly to that and get real time updates and warnings directly to your device. You will be able to link to the data as soon as we post it on the website.”
The Alberta River Forecasting Centre monitors river conditions and issues stream advisories, flood watches and warnings. Provincial officials were criticized last year for not providing better warnings about the heavy rainfall that ultimately led to devastating flooding in Calgary, High River and other areas of southern Alberta.
It also became clear in the Bow Valley that no government agency has the jurisdiction to forecast on mountain creeks, which typically run dry for most of the year. A streamflow advisory for the Bow River and its tributaries was issued on June 19 at 12:45 p.m. and a flood watch June 20 at 3:05 p.m., but only upstream of Calgary.
There was no advanced warning in the Bow Valley for high mountain creeks and local authorities reacted to the situation as it unfolded in Canmore and the MD of Bighorn.
Lamb said most flow monitoring is in bigger streams and forecasting for floods includes that data, weather forecasts, data from weather stations throughout the province’s network and considering snow pack levels.
“We can’t monitor every stream, but the warning applies to the entire area so anyone living on a stream or river should take that warning,” he said, adding that includes mountain creeks in this area. “We are looking at how we can improve our weather forecasts and one of the areas is predicting and evaluating the effects of the intensity of rainfall, looking at best practices in terms of forecasting and our understanding of storm events.”
Improvements include a new automatic intensity alarm system for the Eastern Slopes that will alert staff and municipal managers about a rapid increase in water levels.
The government has budgeted to spend $75,000 to evaluate the effect variations in weather forecasts have on river forecasting, $140,000 for a province-wide project investigating worldwide best practices for river forecasting, $280,000 to examine how changes in duration and intensity of rainfall affect the timing of flood events and $3.5 million for flood mitigation studies that review and assess options for Alberta’s most flood prone river basins.
