B.C.’s average snowpack measurements are at their lowest level in the 31 years that records have been kept, the B.C. Rivers Forecast Centre says.

The centre’s May update shows the South Coast basin at just 12 per cent of normal.

“The average of all provincial snow water equivalent measurements for May 1st is 69 per cent of average conditions. This is the lowest province-wide average . . . in the past 31 years of record and is primarily due to the record low snow packs in the southern areas of the province,” the centre says in its May bulletin.

The centre says temperatures across the province continued to be above average, while conditions in the province’s southern regions were much drier than usual, ranging from 17 per cent to 75 per cent of average precipitation.

Source: BC government

 

Table 1 – BC Snow Basin Indices – May 1, 2015

Basin	% of Normal	Basin	% of Normal
Upper Fraser West	155	Boundary	58
Upper Fraser East	87	Similkameen	37*
Nechako	118	South Coast	12*
Middle Fraser	68	Vancouver Island	14*
Lower Fraser	24*	Central Coast	51
North Thompson	91	Skagit	14
South Thompson	81	Peace	88
Upper Columbia	72	Skeena-Nass	108
West Kootenay	67*	Stikine	94
East Kootenay	46*	Liard	105