THURSDAY JANUARY 15, 2015
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THE BULLETIN PROUDLY SERVING KIMBERLEY AND AREA SINCE 1932 | Vol. 83, Issue 10 | www.dailybulletin.ca
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B.C. River Forecast Centre releases snow pack report East Kootenay snow pack at 80 per cent of normal C AROLYN GR ANT Bulletin Editor
It has been a winter without too much snow thus far in 20142015. In fact, the City of Kimberley just this week did its first removal of snow from the downtown area. It is the job of those at the BC River Forecast Centre to keep track of snow packs in order to keep local, regional and provincial governments informed on what to expect for the spring runoff. The Centre has just released its first forecast of the season, and no surprise, it is showing less than normal snow packs all around the province. According to the forecast, East Kootenay snow packs are at 80 per cent of normal. Some areas, like the Okanagan are 90 per cent of normal, while others — South Coast — have only 49 per cent of normal snow accumulation for this time of year. Last year at this time, the Upper Fraser snow pack was 140 per cent of normal. The East Kootenay was 91 per cent of normal. The report says that early winter 2014-2015 has been characterized by a transition to near El Niño (ENSO) conditions, meaning
there could be generally warmer temperatures through out the province, but it likely isn’t a strong enough El Niño to have much effect. By early January, nearly half of the annual BC snowpack has typically accumulated. At this early stage in the season, there are no indications that any regions of the province are developing increased seasonal flood risk, the report says. Currently observed low snow pack in some regions of the province may be an early indication of the potential for lower than normal stream flow in the spring and summer. However, with three or more months left of snow accumulation, these outlooks could change significantly. The seasonal forecasts for the interior, Columbia and Kootenay, and the northeast areas of the province do not indicate temperature conditions will vary much beyond seasonal average conditions but do indicate greater than average precipitation is expected through March 2015. If you look at historical data for the East Kootenay, 2011 was the last year where the snow pack was at 80 per cent. Last year it was at 93 per cent, in 2013, 112 per cent and 2012 at 101 per cent. The snow pack report will be released on February 9, 2015.
NICOLE KORAN PHOTO
Police responded to the scene of this accident, where one vehicle rear-ended another, near the BC Ambulance station on Tuesday.
Lunch with Kimberley’s Mayor Lots of information to be had at informal gathering C AROLYN GR ANT Bulletin Editor
Mayor Don McCormick hosted the first of his monthly Lunch with the Mayor at City Hall on Wednesday, January 14, 2015. Twenty-three people turned out to share lunch and a little conversation, give a few suggestions and ask some questions. For the first meeting, McCormick went
CAROLYN GRANT PHOTO
Mayor Don McCormick hosted his first brown bag lunch on Wednesday. through his To Do List, and that took up the majority of the
hour and a half event. He began with communication,
which according to McCormick is something that you can
never do well enough. However, he said there has been a start in that area with weekly news columns in the Bulletin on Thursdays and trying to engage through the City’s and McCormick’s personal Facebook pages. “This brown bag lunch is an example of what we re trying to do around communication,” he said. He also spoke about customer service. The taxpayers of Kimberley were essentially customers, he said and should expect a certain standard. See MAYOR, page 4