With thousands of British Columbians under evacuation order, the province's Interior region is bracing for rising waters as the combination of melting snow, rainfall and warm temperatures contribute to historic flooding.
Chris Marsh, emergency operations centre director and program manager for the Regional District of Kootenay Boundary, said they expected water levels to peak overnight into Friday with different parts of the district seeing bodies of water swell between 30 and 100 centimetres.
The River Forecast Centre says there's still lots of snow in the mountains that feed rivers in the area.
It issued flooding warnings for the Kettle River, West Kettle River, Granby River and surrounding tributaries in the Boundary region. There is also a high streamflow advisory for the West and East Kootenay.
Weather outlook
CBC meteorologist Johanna Wagstaffe said the weather in the region was "a rapidly changing situation," with pockets of showers and thunderstorms expected through Saturday.
"It's these pockets of downpours over the past several afternoons and evenings that have injected all of this fresh moisture into the rivers and that's what's really led them to burst their banks at these critical points," Wagstaffe said.
Hot and dry conditions are forecast to start early next week, and this could further melt the region's heavy snowpacks and add to the rising water levels.
"We're going from rain to an increase in melt over the next few days," Wagstaffe said.
More than 2,700 people under evacuation order
The Emergency Info BC website listed evacuation orders or alerts in seven regional districts and for seven First Nations around the province Thursday.
More than 2,700 people were affected by the orders, with many struggling to salvage what they could and fortifying their properties.
Flooding is also a concern outside of the Interior.
The province encouraged local governments and First Nations communities along the lower Fraser River to prepare for potential flooding as it experiences high flow rates.
In the north, an area close to Smithers, B.C., was put under evacuation alert.