Spring in New Brunswick And the River Stays in Bed

Spring has arrived in New Brunswick and is creeping further up the province. Everyone is well aware that there are two things that will happen over the next month. The snow will melt and the water will flow. What is crucial in this process is the rate of both. The spring melt got as far north as Meductic on Tuesday as this time lapse sequence of the highway webcamera shows if you look at the snowbank in front of the camera.

Now, once the snow melts the water has to drain out somewhere and there are three majour, independent drainage rivers in New Brunswick: the Saint John River, the Miramichi and the Saint Croix. The available webcameras only give us a view of the Saint John River near Fredericton. There are three views: the Fred E-zone cameras show the river and in fact the Officers Square view has been changed from the melting ice rink to across the parking lot to the river (it would have been nice if they had have scraped a bit more filth off the lens but it is a more interesting image). In addition, the standard riverfront camera has been giving a reliable view of the river.

The final webcamera view of the river comes from one of the MRDC cameras and yes, they still face due east so are useless until the sun is high in the sky and yes they still fog up in damp weather but the camera at the Coytown-Sheffield highway bridge does give an incidental view of the river.So the Saint John River is high but still in its banks for one reason. No rain. For the most part the warm weather has been coupled to cool/cold nights which allows the meltwater to drain and the lack of rain has meant that we are only dealing with melt water.

But the spring is not over yet and when it comes to the Saint John River the web cameras tell the story. The lowest level of the river on camera are the ones above (taken today 17 April). As you go up the river valley you can see the images from the MRDC and Brun-Way webcameras just what we are facing.

At Longs Creek the exposed snow is gone and while the ditches still have water in them the meltwater has pretty much drained away.

Meductic we saw above but this is the view today and we can see that there is significantly more snow to deal with as we head up the river.

At the Aristook River the snow has pretty much melted away but it is clear that the fields and forests still have a burden of snow to leave yet. And at the same is true at Quisbis Hill and if anything it would appear that the forests have a significant harvest of snow still to be released.But at Mont Farlagne the snow lies heavy on the ground and there lies the tale. A couple days of warm rain on the upper reaches of the Saint John River and everybody will need to head for high ground.

So with a note of caution we enjoy the Sun that we have now. Indeed, the Fredericton City Hall camera caught a glimpse of the first Sun worshipers of the year if you look at the album cover of the view of the province below.

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As a tiny postscript to this posting I would note that there is a very incidental view of the Nashwaak River through the trees behind the church at Durham Bridge but you have to want to see it.