Forecast study for Prairie Provinces Water Board

The Prairie Provinces Water Board has spearheaded a study to improve and coordinate water supply forecasts for Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. Initial forecasts for the April to October period are based on winter storage precipitation data, summer rainfall and winter base flows. Further the use of percent correction factor, based on data for three integrating loss basins, significantly improved the accuracy of forecasts for the South Saskatchewan River. Extreme residuals were reduced from plus-or-minus 23 percent to plus-or-minus 8 percent.