High streamflow advisory issued for North Thompson River

Recent and ongoing rainfall combined with very high snowpacks has triggered a high streamflow advisory for the North Thompson River.

That includes tributaries around Barrier and Clearwater, according to the River Forecast Center’s advisory that was issued today, June 7.

“With the North Thompson River, we’ve got very high snowpacks – near record or at record for some locations for this time of year,” Dave Campbell, head of the River Forecast Centre, told iNFOnews.ca. “There’s certainly concerns for implications for floods this year, certainly for the North Thompson and into Kamloops.”

The rivers are expected to continue to rise this week.

In the Okanagan, the snowpack is not as heavy and most of the readings are in upper elevations so don’t reflect the fact that much of the lower elevation snow has melted, Campbell said.

While the Regional District of Central Okanagan has closed the Mission Creek Greenway underpass at Casorso Road in Kelowna, the creek probably has peaked as far as flows from snowmelt are concerned, Campbell said.

The creek’s flow doubled over the weekend because of heavy rain.

That means it could still rise if there is significant heavy rainfall, as could other rivers in the Thompson and Okanagan regions.

The weather forecast of the next few days is for unsettled weather with some precipitation but no heavy, widespread downpours are forecast, although it’s hard to predict rainfall amounts more than a day in advance.

READ MORE: Sunshine early this week in Kamloops and Okanagan but more rain on the way

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