Kootenay Pass Weather & Road Conditions

No full closures are reported on Kootenay Pass as of Sep 20, 2026 5:48 AM PDT, and no lane closures or roadworks either. Always check with DriveBC before setting off.

Kootenay Pass Winter Tire & Chain-Up Requirements

Kootenay Pass is on a designated winter tire and chain route. Winter tires are required on it every year from October 1 to April 30, whatever the forecast on the day, and commercial vehicles carry chains and put them on at the chain-up signs. What is in force right now — a chain-up in effect, a closure — this page does not carry; DriveBC ↗ is the authority before you set off. The rule in full, with the fines and the exceptions, is on the British Columbia page.

What this page can tell you is the surface at the summit, from radar and surface analysis: currently dry, with the road surface estimated at 5°C. The road surface figure is an estimate derived from air temperature, not a measurement — bridges and overpasses run colder than the number shown.

Kootenay Pass Weather Forecast: Next 6 Days

At the summit, 1,775 m. Each day shows its warmest and coldest hour, and the worst driving conditions forecast anywhere in it — not the average, because the hour that closes a pass is the one worth knowing about.

1. Rest of today Sep 20

   

   21°C 7°C

   Dry

   Wind to 9 km/h

2. Mon Sep 21

   

   20°C 8°C

   Dry

   Wind to 14 km/h

3. Tue Sep 22

   

   18°C 7°C

   Dry

   Wind to 12 km/h

4. Wed Sep 23

   

   17°C 5°C

   Dry

   Wind to 14 km/h

5. Thu Sep 24

   

   17°C 3°C

   Dry

   Wind to 10 km/h

6. Fri Sep 25

   

   16°C 4°C

   Wet worst around 4 PM

   Wind to 10 km/h
   10.2 mm precipitation

Forecast, not a measurement — from the same weather service that draws this page's radar and road colors, model run 6 hours ago. Days run on Pacific time, the clock the pass keeps — not the reader's.

The climb to Kootenay Pass

Where each approach starts, how far below the summit, and how much road the climb takes. The starting points are DriveBC cameras, so the elevations are the province's own; the distances are measured along the highway's line. Snow at the summit and rain at the start is the normal state of this road for half the year, and the table says how far apart the two are.

Why Kootenay Pass closes

Height. At 1,775 m this is the highest highway pass in the province kept open all winter, with an average of 2.5 m of settled snow on the ground at the summit in late winter (BC Parks). Avalanche gates stand at each end of an 18 km controlled section, and the province closes them to fire remote Gazex exploders and clear the debris — planned closures of a few hours, usually announced the day before, and unplanned ones when a storm or freezing rain raises the hazard, as through the week to 26 March 2025.

The dated closures, with the province's own releases for each, are on the Highway 3 page.

If Kootenay Pass is closed

• Highway 3A and the Kootenay Lake ferry — about 2 h 40 min longer than the direct road when both are open, 165 km against 83 km for Kootenay Pass, Salmo to Creston. North to Nelson, along the west arm to Balfour, the free ferry across to Kootenay Bay, then down the east shore to Creston. The sailing is 35 minutes and the boats run to a timetable, so the time depends on the one you catch.

Distances and times are measured over openrouteservice on a clear road, and a closure day is not one: the detour carries the closed road's traffic too. Whether the pass is open right now is on DriveBC ↗.

Kootenay Pass by the month

Thirty-year normals from the nearest Environment and Climate Change Canada station with a full record: Creston, 37 km away and 1,237 m below the summit. The pass runs colder than these figures — roughly 0.6 °C per 100 m — and turns more of the same precipitation into snow. Averages for 1981–2010; a normal month, not this month.

Source: Environment and Climate Change Canada, Canadian Climate Normals 1981–2010, station CRESTON WPCC (1142164), 538 m, through the MSC GeoMet API.

Related Roads

Kootenay Pass Road Weather FAQ

Is Kootenay Pass open right now?

No full closures are reported on Kootenay Pass. No lane closures or roadworks are reported either.

What are Kootenay Pass road conditions today?

The map on this page colors the route along Kootenay Pass by what is on the pavement right now — dry, wet, slush, snow or ice — from radar and surface data, last updated Sep 20, 2026 5:48 AM PDT. Right now temperatures run from 8°C to 12°C and the strongest wind is 12 km/h.

Do I need chains on Kootenay Pass today?

In a car, no. Kootenay Pass is on a designated winter tire route: winter tires are required on it from October 1 to April 30, and chains are what commercial vehicles carry and put on at the chain-up signs. A chain-up in effect or a closure is posted on the signs and on DriveBC. What this page can tell you is that the surface at the summit is dry, and the road surface is estimated at 5°C.

What is the weather forecast for Kootenay Pass this week?

At the summit, Sep 20 to Sep 25: highs 16-21°C, lows 3-8°C. No snow or ice is forecast on the road in that time. It is a forecast rather than a measurement, and the later days are less certain than the earlier ones.

How often are Kootenay Pass road conditions updated?

The road surface and weather layers are rebuilt whenever this page is opened with data more than ten minutes old, and refreshed on a schedule in between, so nothing here is more than about two hours old even on a road nobody has looked at. Closures and road blocks are re-imported from DriveBC every fifteen minutes. Every section on this page carries the time its data was fetched.