Nicola snowpack figures show decrease for April 1

The BC River Forecast Centre has updated the provincial snowpack figures for April 1, 2021, showing that the snowpack in the Nicola region has shrunk.

Since the last report on March 1, the snowpack in the Nicola reduced from 119% of normal to 108% according to Hydrologist Jonathan Boyd.

“It’s certainly a positive with regards to flood concerns and that is really in part because of a dry month of March for the South Interior,” began Boyd. “It’s still is technically above normal. One thing that is pretty common across the South Interior is that the low elevation sites are a lot lower than normal for this time of year and that’s more indicative of warm December and January conditions.”

Boyd also looked to the long-range forecast with temperatures expected to rise this week, mentioning to some snowmelt could begin.

“I do think that we are going to start seeing some melt in the Nicola by mid to late this week,” said Boyd. “I don’t think that the snowpack is high enough in the lowest elevations, there shouldn’t be any flood concerns but certainly the rivers should start to rise.”

The City of Merritt will be holding a town hall meeting this Thursday (April 15) to discuss this year’s freshet.