With the potential for rain in the forecast until at least Tuesday of next week, the Mayor of Kamloops is urging caution.

Speaking on the NL Morning News, Ken Christian says he is concerned about the potential for flooding given the weather we’ve seen so far this week.

“When we get this late in the season with out seeing appreciable snow melt at the higher elevation, anything can happen and I’m worried,” he said. “I think the message that manager Wightman gave us was ‘be prepared.’”

Speaking to City Council on Tuesday, Utility Services Manager, Greg Wightman, said this year’s flood season in Kamloops could be similar to what was seen in 1999.

“Obviously a cool spring has delayed the melt and resulted in continued accumulation of snow melt,” Wightman said. “So what we typically see is snow that has started to melt through the month of April, we just continued to accumulate snow right into may here.”

The 1999 flood is noted on the markers at Riverside Park, along with 1894, 1948, and 1972.

“We will look after public infrastructure as a City but private property owners need to protect their property themselves,” Christian added. “We have sand is available, so get sandbagging. Inspect your dikes, and make sure you move stuff from a lower elevation to a safer location.”

“As well, boating really is going to be a no-go as the river gets higher here. It causes safety concerns for potential rescue but it also the wakes really affect our diking systems.”

Thursday morning, the B.C. River Forecast Centre issued a high streamflow advisory for much of the Southern Interior as temperatures reach the low to mid-20 C range. It comes as the North Thompson snowpack is at 142 per cent of normal, while the South Thompson is at 113 per cent of normal.

“As we move foreword for the June 1st [snow survey] we expect the relative percentages to get quite high, but it gets a little bit wonky at this time because you’re comparing to a normal value that’s typically dropping quite low at this time of year,” Hydrologist Jonathan Boyd, told NL News.

“The big story has just been the delay of the snow melt and then the great risk is if we end up with an extreme heat wave.”

Christian also noted recently completed flood mitigation work at Riverside Park should prevent the need for Hesco Baskets to be installed like in years past.

“We can save that resource for another part of the city that we need to protect,” he said.

“The infrastructure there [in Riverside Park] in particularly the sanitary sewage pump station is really critical to the overall operation of our sanitary sewer and so we needed to protect that. There is also some electrical infrastructure there that is really critical to how the city operates.”

“Hopefully we can get through this without much damage but I will be on heightened alert as we get into mid-June and beyond,” Christian added.

The next update from the BC River Forecast Centre is scheduled to come next Wednesday, June 8.