Unusually low water in Yukon lakes this spring a sign of climate change, expert says

When Peter Heebink looks at the extra metres of sandy shore in front of his house on Marsh Lake, south of Whitehorse, he can't help but laugh.

"I feel like having a beach party," Heebink said, standing in front of his beached kayak. 

Following a relatively dry winter and cool spring this year, water levels in some lakes and reservoirs across the Yukon are at record lows — including in the Southern Lakes region where Heebink lives. 

And while it's still early in the warmer months, one expert says things might not change much in the weeks or months ahead.  

"If the dry conditions continue, it would be very surprising to me that we reach the historical median or average in those lakes," said Benoit Turcotte, a senior researcher at Yukon University. 

Turcotte, who specializes in hydrology and climate change, says water levels are unusually low across the Yukon for this time of the year. He says that's due in part to some windy weather. 

"It just seems that we lost a lot of the snowpack to just sublimation — to the wind," Turcotte said. 

He says there's still enough snow up the mountains to fill up bodies of water in most areas in the Yukon. However, he says the territory will need a good amount of rain to reach average levels by the end of the summer. 

"That would mean a quite rainy summer and people would not be super happy about that," he said. 

Heebink says he would be concerned if the water level at his home stayed this low. But he's also somewhat relieved, recalling the serious flooding that hit the Southern Lakes region back in 2021. 

"Everyone was pretty traumatized," Heebink said. 

"You'll find most people are happy to see [low water levels] because if it's high this time of year, it's likely to be a flooding year, usually." 

Extreme weather patterns

Yukon Energy said last week that Marsh Lake was not refilling as fast as usual, breaking a decades-old record.  

"Typically, snowmelt begins refilling Marsh Lake by mid-May, and in 75 per cent of years, it's underway by May 23rd," the electric utility company wrote on social media.

"The latest start of refill since 1980 was June 1st. This year, due to ongoing unseasonably cool weather, we now expect lake refill after June 5th, which will be the latest on record."

Yukon Energy says this is a "clear reminder" that with unpredictable weather conditions, climate change is affecting operations. 

Turcotte agrees. 

He says the territory will see more and more extreme weather patterns, including more drought and flooding. 

"We can always talk about climate change because we're in it," Turcotte said.

"Anyone saying, 'oh, this is not climate change,' well ... everything is climate change, even a normal day is climate change ... In the Yukon, we're one rain storm away from a flood, and we're a few snowstorms that didn't happen or rain storms that didn't happen away from record-dry conditions." 

It's a serious worry for elder Charlie James from the Carcross/Tagish First Nation. He's been living in Carcross, about 72 kilometres south of Whitehorse, for at least 70 years. He says he has never seen the water level this low in the area. 

"We have a good relationship with the water ... everybody spends a lot of their time out on the water because it's healing," James said.

"We dry a lot of our fish for winter. Lot of times, most elders like to have fresh fish year round. But we can't do that anymore." 

James says he's concerned about the fish, which need specific water conditions and depths for spawning. 

Fish habitat and migration, as well as energy production, and drinking water are among Turcotte's top concerns. He says the dry conditions are also a reminder that forest fires can start, and spread very quickly. 

"You can definitely enjoy this weather and all that, but we're never too close from having problems up here," he said.