Snowpack levels in the Kamloops area and much of B.C. are right around where they should be.

River Forecast Centre hydrologist Jonathan Boyd says the North Thompson snow level is 100 per cent of normal.

Meanwhile, the South Thompson snow is 17 per cent below and the Nicola is 19 per cent below.

“If we have really stormy rest of March and a cold and stormy April, then we could get the numbers back to normal for the South Thompson and Nicola and bit above normal for the North Thompson. I don’t think we’ll get into any extreme highs or anything like that.”

Province wide, Boyd says the average snowpack is 11 per cent below normal, a much different story than this time last year when the snowpack was 19 per cent above normal.

After-back-to-back years of flooding in B.C., Boyd says the risk from the spring freshet is much more optimistic this year.

“Conversely, if we continue the pattern that we’ve been under since early February where there’s really been limited snow in the mountains then we’d be getting into significantly low snowpack for the Nicola and South Thompson,” he adds. “We’d be more concerned with a drought situation.”

Boyd says the risk of drought becomes most prevalent when snowpack levels drop to 25 per cent below normal.

In a typical winter, about 80 per cent of the snow accumulation has occurred by March 1.