B.C.’s colder-than-average spring leads to flooding concerns for several communities

Rising water levels are putting some B.C. Interior communities on edge, especially those still recovering from devastating flooding last year.

A colder-than-normal April and start of May has led to higher snowpacks and delayed the melt across the province, creating an increased risk for spring flooding.

“That has us a little concerned… we are watching for a warming trend,” says Spencer Coyne, the mayor of Princeton, adding that his community is prepared should the Similkameen River start rising more rapidly.

“We left temporary works in place after the November flooding and we will leave those in place at least until the end of the spring freshet.”

Coyne tells CityNews that, for the most part, people in Princeton are positive but last fall’s flooding still hangs over them.

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“We are apprehensive, we are still on edge, it’s going to take a while before that settles down. We are looking at the long term forecast right now — we still have high water and they are talking about a warming trend coming in the next few weeks, so that could add further complications. But now we are looking at the summer forecast and we are already heading toward a drought.”

He says that will bring its own issues, including more forest fires.

“We were really hoping we might get a year off from all of this, but it doesn’t look like Mother Nature is going to cooperate with us.”

High water advisories issued for some communities

That’s a sentiment echoed by the mayor of 100 Mile House in the South Cariboo.

“This is year number six we’ve had tragedies and disruptions to our community. It started in 2017 with fires, then we had flood, and then COVID, then we had more fires, and now we are back to floods again,” says Mitch Campsall. “Water levels are going up fast, our snowpack is very high — way above average — and we are doing everything we can to prepare.”

The mayor’s biggest concern is road and highway closures if flooding becomes an issue in the weeks ahead, especially in the Fraser Canyon.

“Our food comes up that way, our lumber goes down that way, that is our biggest concern. We haven’t lost any lives in the previous flooding, and that is due to everyone working together,” he says. “That’s one good thing about the South Cariboo — we all work together, we have probably the best community in the world.”

There are no warnings in place, but a High Streamflow Advisory has been issued for three areas of the province where levels are rising or expected to rise rapidly. (Courtesy: River Forecast Centre)

The River Forecast Centre says the spring flood risk depends on a number of factors, including the temperature and rate of snowmelt and how much rain comes with that at the same time.

“The risk areas are some of the locations in the Interior, like the upper Fraser, the North Thompson, the Cariboo Mountains around Quesnel, parts of the West and East Kootenay and then the upper Columbia,” says hydrologist Jonathan Boyd.

“They are considerably above normal snowpack for this time of year, and the real risk now that we have had these cold temperatures is that has put us in a situation where we are more vulnerable.”

Boyd says the flood risk for parts of B.C. has increased considerably since April 1.

“Even since May 1 it has increased just because the temperatures have remained cool. The biggest risk is if there’s an extreme heat wave.”

He says the odds of an event like last June’s heat dome, which brought record-breaking temperatures to much of southern BC, are small but the chance exists.

“The ideal situation would be if we got hot weather for one or two days and then that was followed by colder temperatures. In those situations, we get little pulses and waves of snowmelt coming down through the systems and it kind of disperses the snow over a longer period of time.”

The forecast centre says it will continue to monitor snowpack conditions and will provide an updated seasonal flood risk forecast in the May 15 bulletin, which is slated for release on May 20.

Preparations underway for potentially busy wildfire season

Things appear pretty calm right now thanks to cooler than normal temperatures, but that could escalate quickly on the wildfire-front if things heat up suddenly. Crews are preparing right now to help the province avoid a repeat of last year.

As of right now there are at least three areas of concern for the BC Wildfire Service.

“April temperatures this year were below normal, and they continue to trend cooler into May, which is positive but because of those elevated drought conditions that we have from last year, we are carefully monitoring areas surrounding Kamloops, Kelowna and Cranbrook where April precipitation amounts were below normal,” explains Fire Information Centre Andrea Heath with the BC Wildfire Service.

She adds crews are being trained right now for what’s to come, including hundreds of new members.

“Currently, we have over 300 new recruits that just completed bootcamp training that was located in Merritt and Prince George. And we are wrapping up our crew-leader training, which is happening in Kamloops and as well, in terms of our air tanker teams, we have all of our bases that our teams have returned to — there are eight bases across the province. On Friday, we’ll have our skimmers return as well, so we’re getting up to speed in terms of our aviation crews as well and they will be conducting practices throughout the spring to prepare for the coming season.”

She feels the hazard of a spring wildfire season help likely be low in the coming weeks but warns wildfire activity could pick up in areas where rain levels are low.

From April 1, 2021 to March 28, 2022, 1,642 wildfires burned 869,279 hectares in BC. Roughly 60 per cent of wildfires in 2021 were caused naturally, 35 per cent were sparked by people and the remaining 5 per cent is considered undetermined.

The provincial state of emergency was declared on July 21 and remained in effect for nearly two months until September 14, 2021.

“The wildfires triggered the implementation of 181 evacuation orders and 304 evacuation alerts. The total cost of wildfire suppression from April 1 to Sept. 30, 2021 was about $565 million. This estimate does not account for future cost recoveries, such as money received from other jurisdictions if BC Wildfire Service crews are deployed outside of the province in the remaining months of this fire season,” adds Heath.

CityNews 1130 Meteorologist Michael Kuss for a lookahead to the next couple months says, as of now, it’s shaping up to be a La Niña year.

“We’ve already been feeling it this spring, colder conditions and unsettled weather and that potentially could, at least, stretch into the early parts of summer with La Niña setting up and continuing through the early parts of summer and that means colder waters and more unstable conditions across the South Coast. Temperatures will be down comparatively, that means not as hot into the Interior as well as along the coast and quieter fire season on tap.”

The province said last summer, at least 23,000 people were displaced due to raging wildfires.