The most important weather predictor I learned as a child in Chilliwack was, “If there’s snow on the Prospector on the Queen’s Birthday, there’ll be a flood.”
“The Prospector” is a slash on the south-western flank of Mt. Cheam, or on the saddle between Cheam and the mountain to its south. (Is that Mt. Thurston?) The old prospector has a pack on his back and is kneeling, panning for gold I guess. Here’s a photo that shows his shape pretty clearly: https://www.mrussellphotography.com/blog/hillkeep-regional-park-cheam-slesse/
My mother was born in Chilliwack in 1921, and grew up on the south end of Reeves Road where her family had a small dairy farm, and she talked about the “Prospector” as far back as I remember. So the slash has been there a lot of years.
The “snow on the Prospector” prognostication makes some sense, because it means there has been a good amount of winter snow and the weather has been cold enough that by the Victoria Day not much has melted. So when it turns warm or hot, all that snow that feeds the Fraser River melts quickly, and voilà, une inundation!
Here’s Cheam yesterday, and a closer pic of the “Prospector,” and, as can be seen, there are still few patches on snow on him. So get out the water wings, and make a preemptive run for the sand bags.
Happy Victoria Day everyone!