MEDICINE HAT — Warmer weather combined with a record snowpack this winter has already begun causing some flooding problems in southern Alberta.
In Dunmore, near Medicine Hat, water engulfed low-lying roads and created lakes, dams and ponds throughout Cypress County on Monday.
In Medicine Hat, the Ross and Seven Persons creeks were both running high.
Both streams featured prominently in the June 2010 flood which destroyed a handful of homes in Medicine Hat and inundated the nearby town of Irvine.
The fast melt was also causing flooding problems in Calgary, where water was backing up into yards and homes because of blocked street drains.
The fire department was being inundated with phone calls, but officials noted they had a limited number of submersible pumps to deal with the problem, causing a delay in some response times.
In Medicine Hat, city police barricaded several streets to deal with localized flooding.
According to a flood forecast put out by the Environment Department, the region received almost double the average snowfall since November.
A cold winter, and a lack of moisture-eating chinook winds led to a 30-year record snowpack in the nearby Cypress Hills.