After a fast and furious spring melt that caused flooding in many BC communities, the BC River Forecast Centre is cautiously optimistic that there’s little risk of further flooding from melting snow pack.
“The province is definitely seeing a lowering of the snow basin indices since May 15th,” says spokesperson Dave Campbell. “Recognizing the advanced melt that we’ve seen with hot temperatures, in general, the province is sitting at normal or a little above normal for this time of year.”
Locally, the upper Fraser West basin was at 120% of normal as of June 1 while the Nechako is was at 107%.
However, flooding due to weather is still a possibility.
“Rain is really going to be the big driver going forward and the thing that will be providing ongoing risk. At this point snow packs are looking like, for the most part, that risk is diminishing and things like extreme hot weather are probably not going to get the levels up.”
Campbell says many of the province’s rivers are at or near their peak and significant rainfall could push them to flood.
With rain in the forecast for much of the province by this weekend, parts of northern BC, including the Peace region, could see flooding due to heavy rain.
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