Hydrologist Jonathan Boyd says the flood watch for the Nazko River was taken down earlier in the month and the high streamflow advisory for the Quesnel area was removed on Monday morning.
“They’ve definitely stabilized over the past week, especially in comparison to the high flows that we experienced mid April from the extreme heat, and then a second pulse of high flows in late April from heavy precipitation.  Some of the bigger systems that are fed more through the mountains, so it’s getting more towards Quesnel Lake and then the Quesnel River itself are still rising, and that’s typical.  They’ll peak later in the season.”
Boyd says the snowpack just upstream of the Quesnel River is at about 104 percent of normal, a far cry from 130 percent at this time last year, and he says most of that is in the upper elevations.
“That’s primarily in stations in the mid to high elevation sites, so low elevations is out of snow, mid elevation is rapidly running out of snow and high elevations at some locations haven’t even really started to kick in with their melts.”
Boyd says there is still a chance of some localized flooding this year if the snow at the higher elevations melts quickly, but for now he says the risk is gone.
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