(JOHN MCDONALD / iNFOnews.ca)

While much of B.C. has higher than normal snowpack levels for April 1, the Okanagan has the lowest in the province at 76%.

That’s not as low as the 72% in 2019 or the 74% in 2015, it's not a good start to the year with early concerns of drought.

“It’s pretty low,” Shaun Reimer, section head for public safety and protection for the Ministry of Forests and the man who controls the outflow of Okanagan Lake at the Penticton dam, told iNFOnews.ca.

“Certainly, I’m not panicking right now or anything like that,” he said. “Like almost always, it’s really going to come down to those May rains. Two years ago we had double the rain in May. Last year we had very little in May.”

That resulted in drought conditions last summer and the worst forest fire season in the region’s history.

READ MORE: Kamloops Fire Centre sees record-breaking number of hectares burned this year

Following the low snowpack in 2015, there were drought-like conditions in the Valley, Reimer said, though not as bad as the 2003 and 2009 droughts.

The low snowpack in 2019 was followed by rains in July and August that reduced the fire danger and gave the region a break after two major wildfire seasons in 2017 and 2018.

At this point, based on snow levels and water inflow forecasts – which predict normal rainfall levels in April and May – Reimer expects Okanagan Lake will fill to near full pool and he plans to actually increase the flows out of the lake in May.

Of course, if there’s not much rain by then, plans will change.

READ MORE: Low snowpack makes easy decisions for the man who controls Okanagan lake level

Reimer is more worried about replenishing Kalamalka Lake, which is fed by lower elevation streams that have low snowpacks.

At the other extreme, low snowpacks mean less likelihood of streams overflowing as it melts.

The lower and mid-elevation snow is melting a little earlier this year than normal while much of the higher elevation snow remains.

“What we always like to see is, sort of, a measured melt,” Reimer said. “You want to see the lower stuff come down while the upper elevation is staying up there and coming down in a bit of a staged kind of thing.”

Which is what’s happening so far this spring.

More good news comes from the fact that the snowpack in the hills feeding creeks affected by the White Rock Lake fire last summer is also low.

That means there’s less water running off what has become impermeable soil, although the danger is not over.

“The snow could be all gone and you could get so much rain up there that it can still cause problems in some of those tributaries,” Reimer said.

There is also good news for the Merritt area that was flooded so badly last fall.

READ MORE: BREAKING: Entire city of Merritt under evacuation order

“The Nicola Snow Basin Index, comprised of stations in the Lower Thompson that are within the Nicola watershed and Okanagan sites that border the Nicola, is calculated at 69% of normal,” states the April 1 provincial snow bulletin released today.

But flooding could still happen.

“Every region is at risk for flooding, even if the snowpack is below normal,” the bulletin says. “The weather conditions during spring play a critical role in the rate at which the snow melts.”

See the full April 1 snowpack bulletin here.

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