For those keeping an eye on the level of Shuswap Lake, 2020 has been a confounding year.
According to Shuswaplakewatch.com, which utilizes lake-level measurements taken in Sicamous, the lake has reached a new peak for the third time this year. The lake had already peaked and fallen in late May and then again on June 25 but by July 3 it was rising again. According to the lake watch site, the lake level rose 5.3 cm between July 2 and 3 and a further .9 cm before the morning of July 4. As of July 4 the level of the lake sits at 349.09 metres above sea level, the highest it has been all year.
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The rising lake has partially flooded the parking lot beneath the RW Bruhn Highway bridge and reached the top of the ramp at the nearby boat launch.
The significant rise in the lake level came on the tail end of a few rainy days which fit in with the trend that developed over the month of June. According to Environment Canada Meteorologist Armel Castellan, June saw 72 mm of rain fall on their Vernon weather station when 59 mm is the average for that month. A dry spell has been forecast through Monday, July 6 with the rain expected to return to the area thereafter.
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Automated snow stations maintained by the provincial government shows that most of the snow that is yet to melt and flow into Shuswap Lake has already come down. The snow station in the mountains above Celista showed the snow depleted by mid June. The report from the Enderby Tower station which is 450 metres of elevation higher than the one in Celista shows about 5 cm of snow yet to melt down from a peak level of approximately 1.4 m.
The level of Shuswap Lake remains approximately half a metre below the point it reached during the destructive flooding of 2012.
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