Low Flows Expected in Rivers

By 250 News

Last month it looked like the Nechako was a little lower than ususal for this time of the year, the latest information from the Ministry of Environment confirms there may be water concerns for the summer.

The snowpack throughout the north remains below normal levels.  The Upper Fraser basin is 30% below normal,  the Peace River basin is 14% below it's usual mark and the Skeena  snowpack is 16% below what it should be for this time of year.

The Ministry says based on snowpack conditions,  spring and early summer runoff is forecast to be only 70-85% of the norm in  the Upper Fraser, Peace and Skeena basins.   The River Forecast Centre is predicting  below average peak flows along the Fraser, near average peak along the Thompson through Kamloops,  and possible flooding of rivers in the Kootenays and Okanagan especially if there is  more rainfall than usual.

Ministry of the Environment graph Nechako/Upper Fraser

The Ministry also says  even though Prince George got more precipitation than normal in April,  the low elevation snow was less than 60% of its normal levels.  Even at the high elevations, the snowpack ranged from 60 to 80% of its normal mark.

Email | Print | Facebook | Twitter | Digg | Del.icio.us