There is not much snow left to melt.
Dave Campbell from the River Forecast Centre says the warm weather continues to burn through the upper level snowpack.
“About 30 to 60% of the snowpack at upper elevations is now melted,” says Campbell.
Campbell says the warm weather is melting the snow at a rate of 30 to 50 milimetres a day.
“That’s about the highest rates we’ve seen this year,” he says.
Campbell says the flood risk has shifted to the bigger rivers that drain the higher elevation sites, like the Fraser, and the bigger lakes.
Okanagan Lake is still rising — but at a much slower pace.
Shaun Reimer from the Natural Resources Ministry says it’s going up about 2 centimetres a day.
“It would not surprise me if our inflows will start matching our outflows somewhere in a week to ten days. That would indicate we would be at a point where we’d be peaking on the lake,” Reimer told a provincial teleconference with media.
Reimer says the lake could rise another 10 to 20 cm’s before peaking.
Kalamalka Lake is rising about a centimetre a day.
“We’re virtually out of snow there, and I think a lot of the contribution there is some groundwater that’s coming in. I would expect that rate of rise is going to drop off in probably another week or so,” adds Reimer.
There are 37 evacuation orders in effect in BC due to flooding, impacting 341 properties, down from the 700 earlier this week.
