Despite a mild winter in the valley bottom, snowpack levels in the alpine are right around normal in the Kamloops area.

As of Jan. 1, the snowpack in the North and South Thompson were respectively 109 and 99 per cent of normal, according to data released today by the province’s River Forecast Centre.

“Despite a fairly slow start to the season, over the last three or four weeks we’ve really seen that snow build up, and we’re sitting January 1st right now, pretty near normal across the province,” section head Dave Campbell says.

Campbell says province-wide, current snowpack levels are at an average of four per cent below normal.

He says that’s good news for the flood outlook, but, “it’s still pretty early,” he says.

“Normally January 1st we see about half of the annual accumulation of snow. So there’s still another three months or so where the situation can change. Certainly as an early snapshot, things are looking in reasonable shape.”

On Jan. 1 of 2018, snowpack levels were at 83 per cent of normal in the North Thompson and 90 per cent in the South Thompson.

It’s this time of year again… the province’s River Forecast released its first snowpack bulletin of the season today.

Despite the mild winter in #Kamloops, alpine snowpacks in North and South Thompson as of Jan. 1 are normal so far this year (see below). @RadioNLNews pic.twitter.com/QLhZ4TYyE1

— Colton Davies (@ColtonDavies_) January 9, 2019