311 percent of normal !
That’s where the snowpack level was for the Quesnel River and the Cariboo Mountains as of June 15th.
But David Campbell, with the BC River Forecast Centre, says that number can be a little misleading.
“What we are seeing, for the most part, is reflecting the delay in the melt. We’re probably a little over half of the way through the upper elevation snowpack, and in a typical year we might be more like 80 percent of the snow has melted by this point in time, so that’s where that 3 times or 300 percent of of normal is coming from.”
Campbell says the melt is a few weeks behind schedule.
“It will take another few weeks before all of that upper elevation snow is gone. But in terms of the flood risk side of things we’re really right in the thick of it right now, anticipating probably the next week is going to be that period of time where we expect to potentially see more of a burst here with warmer weather. We’ll also start to turn the corner within the next week or two on the snow.”
There continues to be a Flood Watch on the Quesnel River.