A Sodden Province

British Columbia is having some hydrologic

issues. Start with one of the largest snowpacks on record. Then add a warm spring, especially last week when the temperature was in the 90s in many areas. Top it off with heavy, prolonged rain that began four days ago, and you have big river rises! This is the Elk River in Fernie. It's bankfull, racing rapidly thru town, but not causing any real problems. The rain is letting up so it probably won't. But elsewhere in the province...The Fraser River is flooding in Prince George and may flood as far downstream as some suburbs of Vancouver. To the northwest, the Skeena River is running amok in the town of Terrace, and there is also flooding in Smithers. Those two towns are on highway 16 between Prince George and Prince Rupert, and the highway is closed at the moment. I'm supposed to go to Prince Rupert in two weeks to catch the ferry to Port Hardy; hopefully the road will be open by then. (I inadvertently changed the font and don't know how to change it back!)

If you look closely in this picture you can see several eddies, generated by the fast current contacting the bank, or underwater obstructions, etc. Naturally they're all circulating counterclockwise. I reckon if I were in Australia the eddies would go clockwise. I just thought it was an interesting phenomenon.