May 23 (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By James Peters

Flood Waters

Interior flood risk wanes with peaks already seen on North Thompson, Fraser: province

May 24, 2023 | 4:11 PM

KAMLOOPS — Flood forecasters for the Ministry of Environment say the flood threat in the B.C. Interior is beginning to subside.

This morning, the B.C. River Forecast Centre dropped or downgraded a series of high water advisories for rivers around Kamloops. This is despite some areas receiving as much as 60 millimetres of rain Tuesday and Wednesday. Forecast Centre head Dave Campbell says hot, dry conditions last week left the soil ready to absorb all of that rain.

“I think that’s been a little bit of the surprise, is that with some of the dry soils we’ve seen with some of that drying out that we’ve had over the last few weeks, we did see a lot of that rain did get sucked up by the soils,” Campbell told CFJC Today. “We’ve been somewhat surprised by the response in the rivers — we’ve seen it much more muted than we would expect for that kind of rainfall.

Last week’s heat also means the province has melted up to 60 per cent of its alpine snowpack — the source of runoff that typically fills the largest rivers in the Interior.

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Campbell believes the North Thompson River has already peaked for the year and its level is coming down. The Fraser is peaking right now and the South Thompson is only days away from reaching its high mark. All this adds up to a freshet season that is three-to-four weeks ahead of schedule.

“We’re starting to get to that phase when the snowmelt itself is probably going to be less of a concern for flood risk — other than getting through the short-term flows that we’re seeing,” said Campbell. “I think the concerns will shift toward monitoring for any kind of extreme rainfall pattern.”

May 23 (Image Credit: CFJC Today)