While Canada’s East Coast continues to dig out from record-breaking snowfalls, on the West Coast a different story is playing out—not enough of the white stuff, even in the mountains.
Mount Washington closed for its winter sports season February 9 after a mass of warm, wet tropical air brought record rainfall to the alpine areas and melted much of the snow on mountain’s runs.
Vancouver Island had only 21 per cent of normal snowpack as of March 1.
BC’s River Forecast Centre said snowpacks in southwestern BC are the lowest since records started being kept 30 years ago.
As of March 1, snowpack in the South Coast region, of which the Upper Sunshine Coast is a part, had only 15 per cent of normal accumulations, said David Campbell, head of the Forecast Centre.
However, snowpack measurements around Powell Lake were done manually and would not be undertaken until April 1, he added.
“There might be some local variability that we’re not picking up,” he said.
Margy and Wayne Lutz, who live on Powell Lake, are concerned by what they see when travelling up and down the lake.
“We are shocked to see so little snow, even in the high country up toward the head of the lake and the mountains beyond Goat Lake,” Margy said. “I worry about the lack of snowmelt to sustain the lake through the summer, and the higher potential for fires during the hot months.”
Margy added that at about the beginning of February they rode their quads up Museum Main from Chippewa Bay and they did not encounter snow until they were at quite a high elevation. “And even then it wasn’t very deep with many bare areas under trees.”
What snow had accumulated started melting earlier this year with the warmer air, said Campbell, so the amount of spring runoff, which usually happens in April and May, will be significantly lower than normal on the south coast.
He added that the centre expects the rivers to go into low flow earlier this year, depending on how much rain falls during the spring and summer months.
