Drought concerns from the BC River Forecast Centre are rising.

The flows in rivers and streams around B.C. continue to be up to six weeks ahead of normal, according to the province.

River Forecast Centre section head Dave Campbell says all the snow has essentially melted at elevations below 1,700 metres.

“That’s definitely where we’re at now, is shifting that focus towards water availability for the summer. Realizing that snow is gone now, and we’re seeing that not only is the snow gone but the influence of the snow is gone as well, or is waning,” Campbell says.

“We didn’t start with a lot of snow this year. It’s been fairly dry for an extended period of time, and then, again, that early melt in the snowpack is really manifesting itself in the streams as well. From a streamflow perspective, things are highly unusual. We’re getting extremely low flows for this time of year; most areas are kind of in that near-record-low-range for the time of year.”

Campbell says 2015 and 2016 had similar drought conditions set up at this time of year, however he says looking back several decades, those are the only comparable years for these conditions.

Drought levels are at a “very dry” rating – level three of four – in most of B.C., including in the Kamloops area.