City monitoring forecast with potential for rainy storm next week

Photo: Sydney Chisholm

Water from the Thompson Rivers spilled over into the parking lot at Sandman Centre on Friday.

Officials at Kamloops city hall are keeping a close eye on the weather forecast, with swollen rivers and the potential next week for a storm that could bring significant rain and raise flood concerns.

A flood watch remains in place for the North Thompson, South Thompson and Thompson rivers, and water levels in the city are very high.

Greg Wightman, utility services manager for the City of Kamloops, said the river levels are expected to peak sometime this weekend and then slowly recede — most likely without significant flooding.

“We have got a much more favourable forecast, as we head into the weekend,” Wightman said on Friday.

“Next week is still a concern, though — Tuesday, Wednesday. If there is the rains they are calling for we are going to see a spike that could get back up to that 1999 level.”

Wightman said the city will be monitoring the river levels and projected storm as heavy rains are in the forecast for the middle of next week.

“We're certainly preparing for the worst-case scenarios,” Wightman said.

“If we do get this rain Tuesday, Wednesday — it’s still something close to 1999 [levels]. So we're saying we're a little bit relieved because we got through this first wave. If we can get through next Tuesday and Wednesday without the rain they're calling for, I think we'll be in much better shape.”

Environment Canada meteorologist Armel Castellan said it's still early, but the storm could pack a punch.

"It will bring precipitation again on Tuesday and it could be quite heavy," he said.

"Certainly you can expect some severe thunderstorms, some heavy rain in some quadrant of the southern half of B.C."

Castellan said the storm is expected to carry over into Wednesday.

Dave Campbell of the B.C. River Forecast Centre said the storm has the potential to bring significant rainfall.

"There certainly is increased vulnerability as we go into the middle of next week in relation to additional runoff of rainfall," he said.

"So we continue to watch that closely. And that could usher in another period of high flows or increased concern next week."

Wightman said the city gets all its information from the B.C. River Forecast Center, Environment Canada and water stewardships, but the forecast changes everyday.

“Thunderstorms are very hard to predict more than about two days out, and they're hard to predict where exactly they're going to hit. So you'll see a severe thunderstorm and you see that influence on the river forecast, it definitely spikes the forecast,” Wightman said.

“But if that doesn't hit, then the forecast drops after that threat is gone. So that's kind of what we've seen here. This week, we had some very severe weather predicted in the North Thompson. Certainly we saw a bit of that up in Blue River and Clearwater, but fortunately not to the extent they're expecting.”

Wightman said the city will have crews out doing inspections on infrastructure daily, focusing on dikes and other pieces of critical infrastructure to ensure the high water that's been flowing for the last month hasn't had any impacts.