There‘s a lot less snow in them thar hills compared to a normal year.
As of Feb. 1, the snowpack in the Okanagan and Kettle valleys was well below normal at 85 per cent, with some measurement locations very low. Oyama Lake, for example, was at 64 per cent. Isintok Lake, northwest of Summerland, was at 59 per cent, and Mount Kobau, in the South Okanagan, was at 77 per cent, an improvement from 50 per cent on Jan. 1.
By comparison, Brenda Mine, west of Peachland, was at 94 per cent, and Mission Creek, east of Kelowna, which supplies one-third of the water flowing into Okanagan Lake, was at 79 per cent. The only measurement site that was above normal was Silver Star Mountain at 108 per cent.
In the Kettle River area, Grano Creek was at 85 per cent, and Big White was at 73 per cent. Western portions of the Similkameen Valley had slightly below-normal snow conditions, while eastern portions appeared to be well below normal and similar to adjacent areas of the South Okanagan.
The overall average was 76 per cent, compared to 89 per cent on Jan. 1.
“It is below average and, of course, we‘re concerned about that because it has certain implications in terms of water conservation,” said Bill Kuhnke, the Environment Ministry‘s manager of forecasting and information in Victoria.
“It is still nothing to panic about because it is still in the range of normal behaviour for this time of year. We‘re still in a deficit situation from a dry couple of years. It would be nice to see some above-average precipitation to make up for it, to bring things to more of an average or slightly above-average condition, where there would be lack of water-supply problems.”
By Feb. 1, on average, about two-thirds of the peak snowpack for the year has accumulated.
The ministry has adopted a “very conservative” approach to releasing water through the Penticton River Channel, he said, with the release currently at minimal levels, which ensures the health of the river downstream.Okanagan Lake is currently
20 centimetres (eight inches) above its minimum level of the last 30 years and 20 centimetres below what the ministry would consider the average condition.
“It‘s definitely lower now than it was in either 1992 or 2003, which were a couple of dry years in recent history. But, if you can believe this, since Dec. 21, Penticton Airport has reported above-average precipitation,” he said.
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