City of Kamloops cautiously optimistic for lower-level river peaks – but prepared for higher

Hot weather is being forecast through the weekend and, with the rivers rising, Wightman says residents need to be cautious.

“Stay away from the water. It’s flowing extremely high, very fast right now. It’s not safe to be around the rivers and we can’t get up and down the river now with the Kamloops Fire Rescue boat so influencing safety will be very difficult. We do need people to remain as safe as possible.”

Wightman added there is still a large amount of snow that has yet to melt. Dave Campbell of the B.C. River Forecast Centre says, over the coming weeks as warmer weather hits, river levels will fluctuate.

“As we go through the weekend and the early part of next week, we do anticipate that this is going to drive up snowmelt rates across the province where there is snow which is very much confined in those high elevation watersheds.”

Campbell does say, however, that there may be good news on the snowmelt front.

“Beyond next week, we are starting to see the critical period of snowmelt. We will be kind of turning the corner on that. We’re not there yet but I do anticipate that when we come to the later part next week that those risks that come with the snowmelt component will start to taper off.”

Even though the forecast can be unpredictable, Wightman is optimistic the city will not see the high water levels of 1972.

“We certainly avoided a drastic-looking event here and we have a much more favourable forecast as we head into the weekend. Next week is still a concern though. Tuesday, Wednesday if there are the rains they are calling for we could see a spike to get back up to that 1999 level again.”

by Connor Gunn

City of Kamloops cautiously optimistic for lower-level river peaks – but prepared for higher

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