A record-high snowpack in the Southern Lakes region could be indicative of global warming, says hydrologist Richard Janowicz of the Department of Environment.

'The predictions are we are going to have both wetter winters and summers, and this is a record high snowpack,' he said in an interview today.

Janowicz noted that 2005 was also high, and perhaps this winter's record snowpack is a sign of the times to come.

At the Whitehorse airport on April 1, the amount of moisture in the snow was 50 per cent above the average over the last 40 years, he said.

Janowicz said snowpack records were also set at the station at Tagish, on Montana Mountain and in Atlin.

A high snowpack in the Southern Lakes region does not equate to flood conditions, Janowicz explained.

He said flooding in this area is influenced more by summer temperatures and the melt rate up on the glaciers and at higher elevations.

In areas susceptible to flooding because of a large spring runoff, such as the communities of Ross River and Mayo, and to some extent Upper Liard, the numbers are not showing any cause for concern, Janowicz said.

The snowpack in Ross River and Mayo, he pointed out, is average or slightly below normal levels.

He said it's above average for the Liard River basin but not a record.

Flooding in Dawson City and Old Crow is not a product of the snowpack, but rather ice jams, Janowicz explained, suggesting nobody can really predict what will happen in those communities from spring to spring.

Survey records indicate the snowpack across northern Yukon, from Faro and Pelly Crossing northward, is below average.