North Okanagan

Photo: Contributed - David Cooper

Photo of the Shuswap from June 15 show the river begining to flood

The Shuswap River downstream of Mabel Lake near Enderby has been placed under a flood warning.

Dave Cambell of the River Forecast Centre says when there are pluses of water  coming from the upper Shuswap through Mabel Lake there is a two day time delay before the water ends up in Enderby.

"We did see a surge yesterday (Monday) in the upper Shuswap, so we are expecting to see that surge show up tomorrow (Wednesday) or Thursday."

The River Forecast Centre is expecting an ease on the terms of the rate of rise, but anticipates another pulse to hit the river soon.

Shuswap Lake is expected to peak on Thursday.

David Jones of Environment Canada is forecasting warmer air to move across the province replacing the colder air in the region right now.

"For the next couple of days in the Interior the temperature is going to rise. Friday and Saturday we are looking at temperatures in the low 30s across the southern Interior."

The warm air will rise up to approximately 3500 metres. Rain fall is expected to fall in the southern Interior on Saturday and into Sunday and will be heavy at times.  Although Jones could not comment on which days would see the most rain next week, he did believe 10 to 20 mm of rainfall will be broad brushed across south west BC.

"We will essentially be exposed across BC to this moist southerly flow, which can bring rain into the interior and will at some point. That problematic low is going to persist into at least Thursday of next week."

Campbell says in regards to the snow pack in the North Okanagan Enderby area, the park mountain snow pillow is still at 75 per cent of the peak snow pack level.

"There is still lots of snow up high that could come down. There is certainly potential, with this adverse weather, that we could see other surges in the area."

Upstream of Mabel Lake near Lumby a flood watch has been issued for the Shuswap River, as the water has stopped rising.