Merritt hosting town hall to discuss freshet

Tonight, Merritt City Council is hosting a townhall style meeting to discuss the upcoming freshet.

City Staff and stakeholders in the region are expected to provide an update on the potential flood risk to the community.

The latest snowpack report for the region did show a decrease from 119% to 108% of normal.

“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 Jonathan Boyd, BC River Forecast Centre Hydrologist. “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.”

With warm temperatures in the region, Boyd mentioned that the Spring melt could begin this week in the Valley.

The meeting is scheduled to begin at 6 pm and can be viewed online through the City of Merritt’s Youtube.