It's spring and that means the snow packs in the mountains are starting to melt, and many municipalities are keeping an eye on river levels.

It's not just towns keeping an eye on the level, residents are too, and a new app from Alberta Environment called the River Forecasting App allows them to do just that.

Okotoks Protective Services Director Scott Roberts says it's a valuable app for residents in town.

"A person who lives in Okotoks will be able to load on a ton of information," he says. "For example in my case I look at, what's the snow pillow and daily forecasts, so are we going to be getting a lot of rain in the mountains that would impact melt?"

Roberts says the app is handy for predicting any changes well in advance, as you can look at river levels upstream.

"You can look at the flow stations in Millarville and Black Diamond that we know historically being a few miles upstream, what we can anticipate in terms of a flow rate coming through Okotoks."

He says the Sheep River can be heavily impacted by precipitation in the mountains, and a push notification about any advisories could come in handy.

"The information that we're going to broadcast, for example, is that in two hours, three hours we can expect an increased rate of flow in the Sheep River and what danger that presents. There's nothing to prevent all members of the community to have access to that information in a timely fashion."

For more information on downloading the app click here.

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