The BC River Forecast Centre ended a Flood Watch over the weekend for the Chilcotin River and tributaries, including Big Creek and Chilko River.
“We’ve definitely seen a period of high flows throughout the region in response to the heavy rain we had in the middle of last week and that’s been working it’s way through,” Dave Campbell, Head of BC River Forecast Centre said, “We have Flood Warning out right now particularly in the Upper Fraser Basin and in the Cariboo Mountains particularly in the Quesnel River as it comes down south from Likely at the lake and down to through to Quesnel”.
Campbell added that they’ve largely seen the peak now for most if not all rivers so we’re starting on that downward trend which is positive. We’re not at this point expecting any significant additional rises. I think a little bit longer in the headwater parts on the Quesnel River before we see the drop there. It hasn’t dropped much, it’s been holding steady for the past day and we expect that it will start dropping through today and into tomorrow and the rest of the week.
“It’s definitely unusual to see flows this high this late. We are seeing in a number of rivers where we’ve never experienced them this high this late.”
When asked about the freshet, Campbell said the bulk of the snow is gone now and the risk they’re seeing are being driven, and the high flows they’re seeing are being pushed over by the rainfall we’re getting and that’s always the wildcard and it just happens that this year we’re getting this prolonged wet weather pattern that’s continued into July.