New Brunswick's Emergency Measures Organization is warning that the winter's heavy snowfalls will likely lead to hazardous flooding conditions this spring.

Officials are concerned about ice jams that will come when the Saint John River begins to break up in coming weeks, said Andy Morton, deputy director of public safety.

But the real problems for the province may be later in the spring when the snow's meltwater ends up in the river system, Morton said.

"Once the ice is out of the system, there's usually a bit of a lull and then we'll see the impact from the snow melt," he said. "That's when we'll see what we call the open water season where open water flooding will occur."

Morton said there is concern about that period of time as the flood waters will have the potential of covering a large area.

In 1998, there was widespread flooding from St. George to Sussex Corner in the province's south.

There are more than 134 centimetres of snow on the ground in the province's northwest. It is the most snow in the region's recorded weather history.

The province can still expect to get about 20 centimetres more in snowfall accumulation before the winter weather is over, said Claude Côté, a meteorologist with Environment Canada.

"We're not going to get much melting of the snow pack we have right now until early to mid-April," Côté said.