DEH CHO - Low water levels have been the only notable part of this year’s break-up in the Deh Cho to date.

The Mackenzie River broke at Fort Simpson on May 8 but low water levels meant there was little excitement. By May 10 only small pieces of ice were floating past the village. - Roxanna Thompson/NNSL photo

Break-up began in the region on May 5 when both the Petitot and Liard Rivers broke at Fort Liard at 3 a.m. After the rivers broke, the ice jammed and stayed in place, said Robert Firth, the hamlet’s emergency response co-ordinator.

At 4 p.m., after the rivers had rose approximately two feet,the ice floated away. Compared to previous years, the break-up was almost a non-event, said Firth, who’s responsibilities include flood watch.

Last year a plug of ice on the Liard River backed water up into the hamlet where it covered a stretch of the main street and a side road cutting off road access to a portion of the hamlet. This year nothing flooded.

“It just barely covered the sandbars on the river that were exposed all winter,” said Firth. “The water is extremely low.”

Firth said he’s spoken to some Fort Liard elders who’ve said they’ve never seen the water levels this low at break-up.

The Liard River at Fort Liard peaked at 8.35 metres during break-up, its average is 10 metres, said Roger Pilling, a hydrometrics supervisor with Water Survey of Canada.

The low water trend continued in other locations.

When the ice on the Liard River at the Liard River ferry crossing outside of Fort Simpson moved on May 6 the river was at three metres. It later peaked at 8.23 metres, a few metres below its average of at least 10, said Pilling.

By Saturday morning, the ice from the Liard had pushed the ice at the confluence with the Mackenzie River in a few places but they were local pushes and didn’t go far, Pilling said. When the Mackenzie finally broke at Fort Simpson on Sunday it was as a result of jam that broke free at Blackstone and pushed through, he said.

The Mackenzie peaked at around noon on Sunday at approximately 9.8 metres. It was 1.5 metres below the average of 11.3 metres set between 1980 and 2009. The river also broke approximately three to four days behind its average date which is normally the third or the fourth of May, said Pilling.

The low water levels meant the Village of Fort Simpson didn’t even have to commence flood watch, said John Ivey, the village’s senior administrative officer.

If the river had reached 12.5 metres a flood watch committee would have convened and the river would have been monitored more closely with pre-prescribed actions taken at every additional half a metre of water rise.

“This was just amazingly easy,” Ivey said.

Lower than normal snowfall over the winter and minimal spring rains both contributed to the low water levels, said Pilling. The quick changes between warm and cold temperatures during the spring also meant that a lot of the snow evaporated instead of melting into the rivers, he said.

As break-up moves along the Mackenzie communities, downriver may see higher water levels because they had greater snowfalls, Pilling said.

As of the morning of May 9 the Mackenzie River break-up had reached N’dulee crossing.

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