| Red Deer River | |
| Source1 Location: | Sawback Range, Red Deer Lakes |
| Source1 Coordinates: | 51.5322°N -116.042°W |
| Mouth Location: | South Saskatchewan River near Empress |
| Mouth Coordinates: | 50.9232°N -109.8949°W |
| Subdivision Type1: | Country |
| Subdivision Name1: | Canada |
The Red Deer River is a river in Alberta and a small portion of Saskatchewan, Canada. It is a major tributary of the South Saskatchewan River and is part of the larger Saskatchewan / Nelson system that empties into Hudson Bay.[1]
The river has a total length of and a drainage area of . Its mean discharge is .[2]
The river is named for the translation of a native term for the river, wâwâskêsiw sîpiy, which means "elk river" in the Cree language.[3] "Red deer" was an alternative name for elk, referring to a closely related Eurasian species.
Communities located along the Red Deer River include Sundre, Red Deer, Drumheller, and Empress, The city of Brooks, as well as Dinosaur Provincial Park, are also located in the Red Deer River Basin. A glacial flood about 18,000 years ago eroded out a portion of this basin and apparently all or most of the scenic badlands bearing the dinosaur and other Cretaceous fossils.
Joseph Tyrrell discovered a huge coal seam here in 1883, besides large dinosaur skeletons.[4]
See main article: 2013 Alberta floods. In June 2013, Alberta, Canada, experienced heavy rainfall that triggered catastrophic flooding throughout much of the southern half of the province along the Bow, Elbow, Highwood, Oldman, and Red Deer rivers and tributaries. Twenty-four municipalities declared local states of emergency as water levels rose and numerous communities were placed under evacuation orders.[5] The Royal Canadian Mounted Police stated four people may have drowned near High River.[6] Over 100,000 people in the region were displaced.[7]
The river originates on the eastern slopes of the Canadian Rockies, in the Sawback Range near the Skoki Valley inside Banff National Park, and then flows east through the mountains and foothills region. It turns north-east before Sundre and flows to an artificial reservoir named Gleniffer Lake, created in 1983 by the Dickson Dam and keeps this heading to the city of Red Deer, where it turns east, and then south before Stettler. It flows south with its valley protected by provincial and regional parks such as Tolman Badlands Heritage Rangeland, Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park, Dry Island Corridor and Midland Provincial Park. At Drumheller it has a south-east direction, and while it flows through Dinosaur Provincial Park it turns east and flows to the Alberta/Saskatchewan border, which it crosses at Empress. It flows for through Saskatchewan before it merges into the South Saskatchewan River.
The waters of Ewing Lake, Little Fish Lake also flow into the Red Deer River.[9] [10]
Sport fish include: walleye, northern pike, sauger, lake whitefish, yellow perch, burbot, lake sturgeon, mountain whitefish, goldeye, brown trout, bull trout, rainbow trout, brook trout, and cutthroat trout.
Other fish include: emerald shiner, river shiner, spottail shiner, flathead chub, longnose dace, quillback (quillback carpsucker), longnose sucker, white sucker, shorthead redhorse, silver redhorse, perch, spoonhead sculpin, lake chub, northern pearl dace, northern redbelly dace, finescale dace, fathead minnow and brook stickleback.
The Red Deer River is the water source for the City of Red Deer and the surrounding area. Pipelines cross under the river and there have been leaks disrupting access to potable water.[11] Increased water flow of the Red Deer River system during heavy rainfall in June 2008 eroded supporting soil, freely exposing a section of Pembina Pipeline Corporation's Cremona crude oil pipeline to the Red Deer River currents. About 75oilbbl125oilbbl of crude oil flowed upstream from the break point under a Red Deer River channel, leaving an oily sheen on Gleniffer Reservoir and of oil-soaked debris.[12] [13] The remediation was not completed until 2011.[14]
Heavy rains in early June 2012 caused a similar but larger leak on a Plains Midstream Canada 46-year-old pipeline on a Red Deer River tributary, Jackson Creek, Alberta (51.8719°N -114.6064°W) near Gleniffer Lake and Dickson Dam,[15] which spilled approximately 1000oilbbl3000oilbbl of light sour crude oil into the Red Deer River.[16]
Red Deer has a humid continental climate (Köppen Dfb), with something of a semi-arid influence due to the city's location within Palliser's Triangle. The highest temperature ever recorded in Red Deer was on 8 July 1906, 2 July 1924, and 28 & 29 June 1937. The lowest recorded temperature was on 17 December 1924. The city lies in the 4a plant hardiness zone.[17] Summers are typically warm and rainy with cool nights. Winters are typically long, cold, and very dry.
Empress is located in the steppe region known as Palliser's Triangle and experiences a semi-arid climate (Köppen climate classification BSk). Winters are long, cold and dry, while summers are short, but with average daytime highs that are warm to hot, though nighttime lows are cool. Spring and autumn are quite short, essentially transition periods between winter and summer. Wide diurnal temperature ranges are regular, due to the aridity and moderately high elevation. Low humidity is prevalent throughout the year. Annual precipitation is very low, with an average of, and is heavily concentrated in the warmer months. On average, the coldest month is January, with a mean temperature of, while the warmest is July, with a mean temperature of . The driest month is February, with an average of of precipitation, while the wettest is June, with an average of .