More water than usual has been drained from Okanagan Lake at Penticton this year.

(STEVE ARSTAD / iNFOnews.ca)

Given that there’s a lot of snow in the Okanagan right now, Okanagan Lake has been drawn down to its lowest level since 2010 and 10 cm lower than at this time last year.

“In February, I got a pretty high inflow forecast,” Shaun Reimer, section heard for public safety and protection for the Ministry of Forests told iNFOnews.ca.

“We’ve got a healthy snowpack and it’s also a snowpack where snow is distributed vertically and horizontally throughout the basin and it’s reasonably high. For this time of year, we probably have quite a bit of low and mid-elevation snow. That’s anecdotal when I say that because most of our snow sampling sites are higher.”

The B.C. River Forecast Centre snowpack update, issued earlier this week, shows the Okanagan snow pack at 124% of normal as of March 1.

“Above normal snow indicates a higher risk for snowmelt related spring flooding for the Upper Fraser West, Chilcotin, Okanagan, Lower Thompson and Boundary basins,” the report says.

The North and South Thompson, above Kamloops, have much less snow. The North Thompson snowpack was at 91% of normal and the South Thompson at 105%.

The Similkameen snowpack is at 82% and Nicola at 123%.

By this time of year, 80% of the snow pack has accumulated so much can change in the next couple of months.

“The other thing that’s really going to impact us, especially my operation in terms of lake and river level management, is going to be what happens in June,” Reimer said.

He’s responsible for controlling the level of Okanagan Lake using the dam at Penticton.

“The last three Junes have been really difficult on my operations,” he said. “June should be our wettest month. Two of those Junes were much higher than normal for precipitation, including last year.”

Those came at a time when he was bringing the lake up to full pool and the dam and downstream capacity does not allow for a rapid release of water after heavy rainfall.

June, 2021, on the other hand, had the record-breaking heat dome with virtually no precipitation.

The Lake level is now at about 341.49 metres above sea level. In 2010 it was at 341.47 metres. Full pool is about one metre higher at 342.48 metres..”

The next detailed report of snowpack conditions will be issued April 8.

— This story was rewritten and corrected at 7:25 a.m. March 10, 2023. The original version, published at 3:37 p.m. March 8, 2023 detailed an incorrect report. 

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