The snowpack in the Kamloops area remains at a 20-year high, but there’s no risk of flooding in the immediate forecast for the North and South Thompson rivers.

BC River Forecast Centre hydrologist Jonathan Boyd those rivers are likely both still a month away from hitting their peaks, as higher elevation snow continues to melt.

“For Kamloops itself, the key messaging is that we haven’t really even begun the melt process there. The hope is that we just continue with seasonal temperatures and we get a gradual melt, where the North Thompson peaks a little bit before the South Thompson.”

Boyd says the current 7-10-day forecast shows that neither river will see any sort of drastic increase.

“Maybe just a slow, steady increase for the South Thompson. The North Thompson, it’ll be probably holding fairly steady.”

The North Thompson snowpack is at 18 per cent above normal, and the South Thompson snowpack is 24 per cent above normal.

A high stream flow advisory is in place for tributaries of the North Thompson River near McLure, Barriere and Clearwater, as well as for the Salmon River which flows into Shuswap Lake.

Boyd also says that the Cache Creek area and the Bonaparte River appear to be “out of the woods,” after the Village of Cache Creek experienced flooding late last month. He says the Upper Nicola River, above Nicola Lake, also appears to have passed its peak.

“The one caveat about that, though, is that if we end up in a situation where there’s heavy rainfall for an extended period of time, then areas can be exposed to rapid increases and flow.”

The flood risk is holding steady in the #Kamloops area, with snowpacks between 18 and 24 per cent above normal. The North and South Thompson rivers remain about a month away from peaking. A full update on snowpack conditions to May 1st can be seen below. pic.twitter.com/5p7evNdSsa

— RadioNLNews (@RadioNLNews) May 8, 2020