Snowcover is 200 percent of normal in some areas near the Saskatchewan boundary. The runoff potential is also high in portions of southeastern Manitoba due to the extremely high soil moisture levels. With adverse weather, such as heavy additional snow and substantial spring rain, the spring runoff potential would become 'much above normal' over most of southern Manitoba. The rapid increase in expected runoff with increased precipitation is due to the high soil moisture levels. Numerical outlook crest stages for the Red, Assiniboine and Souris River basins are shown in Table 1.
Swamps are full and many low areas on fields contain ice.
Snowcover is close to average for this time of year. The flood potential is relatively high despite the lack of a heavy snowcover, since water infiltration into the soil will be much less than average. The runoff potential will increase very rapidly with additional precipitation. With the 'favourable' weather scenario there would be no flooding along the Red River in Manitoba this spring. With normal weather conditions peak stages along the Red River in Manitoba will be similar to those of 1999, with minor flooding of agricultural lands from Emerson to Morris only.