British Columbia’s nagging drought could be eased by an incoming weather pattern that may bring a colder and wetter than normal winter, says Sean Fleming, an adjunct UBC professor of atmospheric sciences. The prolonged drought has caused wildfires to burn year-round, forced some communities to ration water supplies and dangerously lowered water levels in rivers, impacting salmon runs. Citing the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Fleming, who works in UBC’s Department of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences, said early projections show a 71 per cent chance that an La Nina weather pattern will move in. …“Potentially, we could be looking at greater than average flooding this winter if the La Nina conditions pan out,” he said in an interview. “That also means, though, greater water supply, greater snowpack in general, greater water supply availability for the next spring and summer.”