The province is seeing record-low river flows in some places as alpine snowpacks have melted off much earlier than normal.

River Forecast Centre section head Dave Campbell says near Kamloops, the North Thompson snowpack is 40 per cent below normal and the South Thompson is 55 per cent below, while all the snow has melted in the Nicola.

“It’s nowhere reflective of the fact that the snow melt is probably about two or three weeks early, which is quite early. And I think that’s probably the biggest takeaway we’re looking at with this one, rather than being particularly shocked with just how low the numbers are,” Campbell says.

“When you look at the type of flow we’re seeing at a lot of spots around the province, our conditions are more similar to what they’d be four-to-six weeks from now. So that’s concerning; really we’re entering into the summer with not a lot of snow to still feed the rivers, and really that increased risk for low flows.”

Campbell says the North and South Thompson rivers are in better shape than most, but he says the snow melt into those rivers is still weeks ahead of normal.

“I think the North Thompson has peaked, and on the South Thompson, it’s pretty close to peaking, it may be at its peak right now, we just have to have to a little bit of warm weather. I’m not convinced it’s going to squeeze much more out of the snowpack, but I think we’ll see over the next few days here. But for the most part I think we’re pretty much at that peak level.”