For the third year in a row, much of the Peace area is starting off in drought conditions.
The Peace River Regional District reporting area—which includes Fort St. John, Dawson Creek and the Kiskatinaw watershed—is at drought level four, which is the second highest level of drought there can be and the highest in the province currently.
The South Peace—where Tumbler Ridge is located, at least on the drought map—is at drought level two.
The rest of the Peace is at drought level three.
What does that mean? Well, there’s a monitoring station on Flatbed. The current flow is 2.54 cubic metres per second, and the current level is 8.08 m.
This is down from the average flow of 13.72 cubic metres/second on the same day historically.
It is better than last year. As of May 16, 2024, Flatbed was at a near record low flow, moving a mere 1.69 cubic metres of water per second.
Meanwhile, the Murray River is at record low flow rates this year, moving 105 cubic metres per second. Which sounds good, but typically, the river moves 226.31 cubic metres/second.
The Kiskatinaw River is also at record low levels, with a flow rate of 0.85 cubic metres/second and a level of 0.15 m. The normal flow for the date the reading was taken is 19.15 cubic metres/second.
All readings were taken on June 4.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
