The snowpack around Revelstoke is at about 70 per cent of normal levels, according to the latest bulletin from the BC River Forecast Centre.
The Upper Columbia region is one of the few places in the province where the snowpack is above 50 per cent of normal levels. In the Stikine in northern B.C., it sits at only two per cent of normal levels.
The data is as of May 15 and was released on Tuesday, May 24.
The River Forecast Centre says the low snowpack is the result of an accelerated melt brought on by an “extremely warm spring, rather than a lack of total seasonal snow accumulation.”
The Upper Columbia Region stretches from Revelstoke north to Valemount and includes the eastern parts of the Monashee Mountains, Northern Selkirks and Rocky Mountains north of Golden.
The snow pillow in Mount Revelstoke National Park shows a snow water equivalence (SWE) of 891 milimetres this year, compared to 968 mm last year and 1,177 mm in 2014
In the West Kootenay region, which stretches from just south of Revelstoke to the U.S. border, the snowpack is only 44 per cent of normal.
The River Forecast Centre says above average temperatures are expected through the summer as a result of El Nino. It says rivers in the region should reach peak flow in the next few weeks.
