For the third time in five years, the province is seeing among the lowest snowpacks in the past 40 years.

BC River Forecast Centre section head Dave Campbell says the average snowpack province-wide was 36 per cent below normal as of May 15th.

He says that value was similar at this time in 2015 and 2016.

“A lot of these systems, the rain can make up the difference, and we’ve seen that. In 2015 we saw these really low snowpacks but had a very wet summer and that was able to make up the difference. In 2016, not so much the case, and we did a lot more pressure as we got into the summer on water availability, that kind of thing,” Campbell says.

It’s really indicating that the snow’s melting early, and that’s something that when we look at climate change projections, that we’re expecting this to happen more frequently.

“The concern is probably more in those systems that don’t have the reservoirs, and they’re not able to capture (water) and redistribute it… These systems that are free flowing and might still be sources of irrigation and areas of fish habitat, things like that.”

The snowpack in the North Thompson is only 15 per cent below normal, which is tied for the highest value anywhere in B.C. Meanwhile the South Thompson is sitting at 28 per cent below normal.