creek by my house peaked at 5 am just 2 inches less than 1995 record level, it fell quickly and by noon had dropped 14 inches, less rain all today, but the level started to come back up and at 8 pm is up 7 inches in the last 2 hours. as i drove out the driveway this morning, after the rcmp came around and advised us to prepare to evacuate, to check it out i did not see any fish swimming up the road as of yet, in 1995 there were a few. when the fish leave the creek for the road it has to be a sign of too much moisture. everyone in the local government and utilities are on high alert and as prepared as they can be, better than a few years ago. i did not drive into lethbridge this am for work, but i am sure the levels are high there, as they had more rain and saturation over last weekend, as well as the terrain is flatter. last evening on my way home i did note the rear parking lot at work was half covered with water, and numerous fields showed lots of plants under standing water. hope it quits soon, as it will take a few days of that chinook wind to dry out, for those that do not like wind you need to learn it is a good thing here. we have had a continual north wind for the last 3 days, it needs to change direction and get this weather out of here.. all in all so far no major issues, but that can change in a hurry, seems that there is about an 8 hour time lag for the water and snow melt to reach me here from the mountains, even the environment crew that measures the volume of water had to do it numerous times today, as it was fluctuating so fast that the powers to be could not properly assess what was happening , so as to adjust the outflow of the reservoirs downstream. a logistical nightmare i am sure. they have been keeping the reservoirs a lot fuller over winter the past few years, which has bitten them in the butt, but the water users want more and sooner every year, so they try to balance it out and take bigger risks, as we see so well... from southwest of lethbridge in the foothills...
