Snowpacks higher this year, but melt timing and rains will determine if we get drought or floods

February 10, 2016

February 10, 2016 – Osoyoos Times

Snowfalls this winter mean the snowpack in local river basins is much higher this year than last, but the timing of the melt and June rains will determine whether we have floods or drought this year.

That’s the word from Anna Warwick Sears, executive director of the Okanagan Basin Water Board (OBWB).

January snow basin indices from the B.C. River Forecast Centre put the Similkameen at 143 per cent of normal and the Okanagan at 125 per cent of normal.

A year ago both basins were below normal.

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