British Columbia’s latest snow survey and water supply bulletin says the provincial average snowpack is sitting at about 92 per cent of what’s considered normal, an improvement over the 79 per cent average at the same time last year.
Some snowpack levels across Northeast B.C. have almost reached record levels during the winter months.
Jonathan Boyd, a hydrologist with the B.C. River Forecast Centre, says the large accumulation of snow could be beneficial to ease the ongoing drought affecting the region.
“It is certainly positive situation in terms of how much water will be available to flow into the rivers,” Boyd said.
Boyd says the Fort St. John weather station measured 208 millimetres of snow, nearly double the average. He adds that most of the snow accumulated in December and March.
Boyd says a combination of atmospheric rivers moving inland from the B.C. coast and cooler temperatures from the Arctic led to the heaviest snowfall in December and March, pushing totals well above average.
According to Boyd, mountain stations in the Pine Pass area recorded their highest December snowpack levels since records began in 1988.
As for the Fort Nelson station, Boyd says it measured 135 millimetres of snow, ranking in the 85th percentile over the past 57 years.
While high snowpack is good news ahead of wildfire season, Boyd notes it also raises some flooding concerns.
“Considering where the Peace Region has been in recent few years, with really low snowpack, this is positive from a drought perspective,” he said. “It does add some extra concern for the possibility of flooding during the spring season.”
Boyd says the best-case scenario is for snow to melt gradually. “We might have a warm spell for a few days, then cool for five or six days, followed by another warm spell,” he said.
On the other hand, a stretch of cold weather followed by hot temperatures mixed with heavy rain could lead to flooding. “That’s when catastrophic levels of flooding could occur,” he said.
Boyd says it is still too early to predict which scenarios Northeast B.C. might see, but adds a major flood could be the remedy to getting out of a long-term drought situation.
Provincewide, about 60 per cent of snow stations were measuring above-normal levels as of April 1, with about 45 per cent considered well above normal.
Still, while B.C.’s average snowpack is higher than it was a year ago, levels in several southern and coastal regions are lower than in 2025.