ActiveOct 8, 2026
BC Drought Levels 2026: The Season, Week by Week
The Province’s 2026 drought ratings for all 41 BC basins in one place, with a dated line each week they change, and the water scarcity pilot beside them.
Drought & Supply
The Province’s drought and water scarcity ratings, the orders that can follow, and what each one means for a well. The Wire reports the ratings; it does not set them.
BC drought levelsFrom the season entry
BC Drought Levels 2026: The Season, Week by Week
The Province’s 2026 drought ratings for all 41 BC basins in one place, with a dated line each week they change, and the water scarcity pilot beside them.
From the Province’s Drought Information Portal, by way of the Wire’s season entry, updated each week the Province issues new ratings. These ratings are more than three weeks old; outside the core drought season the Province does not update them.
41 basins, by level
0
1
2
3
4
5
A drought level
How dry a basin is against its own record, from 0 (no drought) to 5 (the most severe and the most rare). Set by the River Forecast Centre from rain, streamflow, lake, and groundwater levels, and issued as often as weekly, typically July to October.
It measures the hazard. The Province says a drought level is not a measure of water scarcity and does not prescribe actions.
A water scarcity level
Whether there is enough water in a watershed for people and streams: Low, Moderate, or High. A pilot in 2026, in 13 watersheds, each set by its own body, named below. Each watershed defines its levels differently.
It can be High when the drought level is low, and it does not trigger regulatory action by itself.
What can follow
Nothing is automatic. First, requests for voluntary conservation. Then orders under the Water Sustainability Act to enforce priority and licence terms, with 250 litres a day per household protected. Then, if streams keep falling, temporary protection orders.
Your supplier’s watering stage is separate, set under its own rules.
On a private well
None of these ratings is a reading of your well. Rain reaches a drought rating within a week and an aquifer weeks or months later. Measure the water level the same way each time and write it down; the record is what tells you how the well is doing.
The nearest the Province has to a reading of your well is its observation wells: its BC Water Availability Tool draws each responding well’s live hydrograph.
A drop in the drought level does not mean an aquifer has recovered.
Who sets the water scarcity levels: jointly by the Syilx Okanagan Nation and the Province of BC, through the nx̌ʷʔulaʔxʷ Management Committee, for the five Okanagan units and the Similkameen; the Nk’eʔxép Management Committee, First Nations and provincial members under the Nicola Watershed Governance Partnership, for the Coldwater and the Upper and Lower Nicola; the Province’s West Coast Regional Technical Drought Working Group for four Vancouver Island streams.
From the Changelog
Drought and scarcity: what moved, dated and sourced.
ActiveOct 5, 2026
RDCK Commissions Groundwater Connectivity Study in BC’s Goat River Watershed
The Regional District of Central Kootenay has hired Western Water Associates to assess how a deeper bedrock aquifer connects to surface water in the Goat River watershed near Creston, where allocation notations already sit on several streams and two shallow aquifers.
Wires and Questions
Explained as it happens, for wells and the people who depend on them.
Drought & SupplyOct 24, 2026
BC Drought Level, Watering Stage, or Boil Water Notice: What Each One Means
A BC drought level is about how dry the region is, a watering stage is about your supplier’s system, and a boil water notice is about safety. None of them tells you how your own well is doing.
Drought & SupplyOct 17, 2026
A Company Wants to Pump From My Aquifer. What Rights Does My BC Well Have?
A household well in BC has a deemed right to its domestic use, and a registered one is on the record the Province consults when it decides an application. The application gets a technical review of whether the water is there, and affected landowners may be notified and given a chance to respond.
Drought & SupplyOct 14, 2026
Six of Eight Kootenay-Boundary Monitoring Wells Below Normal; Midway at Its Lowest for the Date
The Province’s October 11 reading of its Kootenay-Boundary observation wells: six of eight below normal for the date, versus three of nine a year ago. Grand Forks is much below normal, and Midway is the lowest it has been for the date in its eight years of record.
Drought & SupplyOct 14, 2026
Can BC Restrict My Household Well During a Drought?
Yes. When the Province enforces priority on a source in a scarcity, a domestic user can be among those restricted. What cannot be taken away is 250 litres a day per dwelling for essential household use. No licence is involved; the rule reaches household wells as they are.
Drought & SupplyOct 12, 2026
BC Drought Levels Drop, but Okanagan Water Scarcity Remains High
The Province’s October 8 ratings put no BC basin above drought Level 2, but water scarcity is still High in the Okanagan, the Nicola, and the Similkameen. A lower rating doesn’t refill a well.
Drought & SupplyOct 9, 2026
Merritt Watering Restrictions: Why a BC City With Abundant Groundwater Limits Lawns
Merritt says its wells can meet the city’s needs year-round, yet lawn watering is limited to two days a week. The gap is explained by peak demand, a deep well held back by manganese, and shallow aquifers fed by the Coldwater River.
Drought & SupplyOct 9, 2026
BC Groundwater Forecast: Two Langley Monitoring Wells Below Normal Into January
Two provincial monitoring wells at 244th Street and 35th Avenue in Langley read below normal, and BC’s October 8 groundwater forecast gives each a greater than 90 percent chance of staying there to January 6.
Where to Go Next
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BC Groundwater WireWritten from inside BC’s groundwater trade.