Penticton dam manager Shaun Reimer likes what he sees so far with the spring runoff in the Okanagan.

With a higher than normal snowpack this year, Reimer had plenty of time to let the appropriate amount of water out of Okanagan Lake and make room for the spring freshet.

One factor he can’t control is the weather, but it’s certainly cooperating so far.

Photo Credit: NowMediaOkanagan Lake at the start of the historic 2017 flooding season.

As the region experiences its first truly warm weather of the year, with temperatures soaring over 20°C in recent days, the middle elevation snow has started to melt.

However, it hasn’t been hot enough for the higher elevation snowpack to melt just yet, which is exactly what Reimer wants to see.

“We'd rather the middle elevation snow start melting and moving before the higher elevation stuff happens,” Reimer told NowMedia. 

“That's when you get into problems, when all the snow starts melting at once due to really hot conditions or big rain fall.”

Reimer says there’s less of a concern over Okanagan Lake at the moment and barring a major heatwave or significant rainfall over several days, the lake isn’t a huge flood risk right now.

Photo Credit: NowMediaThe Penticton dam.

The tributaries leading into the lake are a different story though, and it’s something Reimer has no control over.

“There's nothing anyone can do really about the amount of water coming down,” he said.

“I would say that particularly on the east side of the lake, we certainly have an elevated flood risk just because we still do have higher than normal snowpacks.”

He added that there’s also a fairly high snowpack up behind Summerland on the west side of the lake.

The short-term weather forecast doesn’t point to those tributaries becoming a problem minus some fast-running water and minor spillage in the hills, but again, that can all change if extreme weather hits the region.

Photo Credit: NowMediaMission Creek in 2017.

In general, Reimer is positive about how the Okanagan looks when it comes to the potential of any flooding, but is always quick to point out that it comes down to weather at the end of the day.

“Because of the drier conditions we’ve had over March and early April, we’re probably looking better than we had been in February, beginning of March, but that doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods,” he explained.

“Conditions can change very quickly and we can always get flooding under normal or even subnormal conditions.”

We can only hope that Mother Nature cooperates this year.