By Cheryl Jahn

Snowpack levels just shy of normal

Feb 11, 2025 | 3:12 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Better than last year. Better than last fall, in fact. That’s the assessment of snowpack levels from the BC River Forecast folks as of February 1 in the two watersheds closest to Prince George.

“It was just a little bit below normal at 87 per cent. And it switched in terms of just how dry it was for January that the provincial average has now declined to 72 per cent of normal, which is considerably below normal,” explains Jonathan Boyd with the BC River Forecast Centre.

“It’s still better provincially compared to last year where it was 61 per cent of normal. For the Prince George region, specifically the Upper Fraser East, which is more of the Robson Valley side and then the Upper Fraser West, the snowpack is actually fairly healthy, especially compared to last year. The Upper Fraser East at 81 per cent of normal and Upper Fraser West at 92 per cent of normal. So significantly higher than the provincial average.”

That is considerably better than the rest of the province, which sits as 72 per cent. However, the Nechako region is problematic, with the snowpack levels at 58 per cent of normal.

And this region is no stranger to drought conditions. and we could be heading that way again.

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“We can expect once again lower inflows during the melt-period, the freshet and then perhaps low flows going into the summer over a protracted period like we’ve talked about drought now for what the last three years,” says Dr Stephen Dery, Hydrologist with UNBC.

The BC River Forecast folks paint the ideal spring circumstances for this region.

“So if we have a relatively cool period of time in the spring, that’s optimal from a flood perspective, the snowpack is high,” says Boyd. “That presents that major risk and it’s a high snowpack. And then a period of sustained very, very hot weather, say seven days or so, that’s when the greatest risk is for the interior, for flooding. The whole atmospheric river situation is really limited to Vancouver Island and the coast in the fall and winter. ”

The BC River Forecast folks say the worst-case scenario is a hot spell in May, such as we saw in 2023, which obliterated the snowpack.