Near-normal snowpack on average across British Columbia is good news generally for spring and summer water supply, but areas of the south-central Interior may fall below the curve.
The provincial environment ministry reported Friday that close to two-thirds of the peak snowpack across the province had accumulated by Feb. 1. The south coast and Vancouver Island saw heavy snowfall in January while conditions elsewhere in the province last month were generally colder and drier than normal.
The snow water index in the Similkameen basin sits at just 76 per cent of normal, while the Okanagan and Kettle basins are at 85 per cent. Snowpacks for much of the rest of the Interior range from 90 to 110 per cent of normal. The only major river basin with above-normal snowpack is the Thompson, at over 120 and near 110 per cent of normal snowpack in the north and south basins respectively.
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“The snowpack in the Okanagan, Kettle and Similkameen basins of the south central Interior suggests the possibility for below normal streamflow and water supply this summer for those areas,” the province said in a release Friday.
In the Thompson River basin through Kamloops, “current results show a potential for a higher than normal spring runoff, dependent on the amount of additional snowfall this winter.”
