Flood watches, streamflow advisories in place amid heavy rain in B.C. Interior

Akshay Kulkarni · CBC News

· Posted: Jun 21, 2025 2:55 PM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours ago

Officials person issued flood watches and precocious streamflow advisories for parts of bluish B.C. and the Interior arsenic rains and thunderstorms walk done the province.

Environment Canada has issued a peculiar upwind connection informing of up to 40 mm of rainfall and embedded thunderstorms in the confederate Interior done Saturday afternoon.

Flood watches — which mean stream levels are rising and could spell implicit the apical of banks — person been maintained for the Upper Columbia and East Kootenay regions successful the east, arsenic good arsenic a information of cardinal B.C.

Meanwhile, precocious streamflow advisories, which bespeak that stream levels are rising, are successful spot for regions stretching from the Peace successful bluish B.C. to the Similkameen successful the south.

"We're watching this beauteous wide area, due to the fact that it is simply a ample precipitation lawsuit coming in, and it's coming from this antithetic direction," said Natasha Cowie, a hydrologist with the B.C. River Forecast Centre.

"It's a spot of an antithetic tempest due to the fact that it's coming successful from the eastbound side, hitting the Rockies," she added. "So Alberta is astir apt going to get rather wet, and past immoderate of that rainfall is going to marque it connected implicit to america arsenic well."

It's hard to foretell the nonstop areas wherever flooding could occur, arsenic forecasters don't cognize precisely however overmuch rainfall volition fall, and however the crushed will absorb it, Cowie said.

"Use a batch of caution astir rivers and streams, particularly if you're retired with children oregon with pets," she said. "Just beryllium alert that flows are astir apt going to beryllium beauteous high. There could beryllium a batch of debris successful the water."

Environment Canada said showers volition beryllium wide Saturday successful the confederate Interior, and thunderstorms will further summation precipitation rates.

A terrible thunderstorm ticker was issued for the South Thompson region, including Kamloops, conscionable earlier 11 a.m. PT.

The aforesaid upwind strategy could bring wet snowfall implicit higher elevations, and motorists connected the Coquihalla, Okanagan Connector and Highway 3 should beryllium cautious, Environment Canada said.

Jane Cook, a occurrence accusation serviceman with the B.C. Wildfire Service, said the rainfall was bully quality and is helping bring down occurrence danger in the province.

She added, however, that the thunderstorms successful the confederate fractional of the state could pb to upwind gusts of up to 70 km/h.

"Although this precipitation tin bring a reprieve from that elevated occurrence activity, [in] regions that are receiving dense rainfall, peculiarly those that person been experiencing prolonged drought, it brings the imaginable for mean flood hazard to emerge," she said.

Cook said that firefighting unit were connected standby successful lawsuit they needed to assistance with flood enactment this weekend.