It’s a question many are asking while looking at the high snow banks…
Could we get another flood?
Meteorologist Claude Cote of Environment Canada says the abundance of winter storms this year has everyone worried, “There’s a lot more snow on the ground than normal. We have about 10 times the amount that we normally have, and what will be of interest is the rate at which we are going to melt all of that snow.”
Cote says worst case scenario is if we get weather like we did in 2012, a mild weather system that brings well-above normal temperatures, and in excess of fifty mms of rain.
He says the ideal weather scenario to keep flooding at bay, is daytime temperatures of plus 5 to plus 10 Celcius, but the overnight temperatures have to get close or below the freezing mark so we melt all of that snow gradually.
However, he says the warm days we have been experiencing lately are numbered, and it’s going to get cooler for the next few weeks until at least mid-April.
(Picture taken in St. Stephen during the Flood of 2010)
