The Water Security Agency(WSA) released an updated spring runoff outlook for 2018, which shows Estevan and area will see a change since the last update.

"The situation is quite a bit from where our forecast was in February," expressed WSA Spokesperson, Patrick Boyle. "Since we had really dry conditions in summer and fall of 2017 with not a lot of precipitation until March 3rd, Estevan and area went from a well below normal spring runoff, to the border of near normal to below normal. It changes the situation, so what we'll see is that melt and add more precipitation or water onto the landscape."

Initially, the WSA had projected a below normal runoff until the province was hit with 20-45 cm of snowfall in early March, which brought snow-pack to near normal levels. Moving forward, Boyle spoke about surveys the WSA will be conducting as the spring melt continues.

"What we're going to be doing is some snow surveys in certain areas and we'll test the water content in the snow to try and understand when it does melt and how it's going to react on the landscape. Also how the melt comes off, whether it's a flash of hot weather or a slow and gradual melt."

As of right now, Boyle doesn't expect much to change in south east Saskatchewan, but doesn't rule out a rainfall event that could push the area into the above average category.

WSA projects that all major water supply reservoirs will have adequate supplies in 2018, due to previous years of high runoff and careful water management.

Further updates will be issued as spring runoff progresses.