Pennask Summit Weather & Road Conditions

No full closures are reported on Pennask Summit as of Sep 20, 2026 5:33 AM PDT, and no lane closures or roadworks either. Always check with DriveBC before setting off.

Pennask Summit Winter Tire & Chain-Up Requirements

Pennask Summit 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 9°C. The road surface figure is an estimate derived from air temperature, not a measurement — bridges and overpasses run colder than the number shown.

Pennask Summit Weather Forecast: Next 6 Days

At the summit, 1,728 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

   

   22°C 7°C

   Dry

   Wind to 9 km/h

2. Mon Sep 21

   

   19°C 7°C

   Dry

   Wind to 20 km/h

3. Tue Sep 22

   

   17°C 3°C

   Dry

   Wind to 14 km/h

4. Wed Sep 23

   

   14°C 4°C

   Dry

   Wind to 22 km/h
   0.1 mm precipitation

5. Thu Sep 24

   

   15°C 2°C

   Wet worst around 9 PM

   Wind to 11 km/h
   2.4 mm precipitation

6. Fri Sep 25

   

   6°C 2°C

   Snow worst around 10 AM

   Wind to 12 km/h
   4.0 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 Pennask Summit

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 Pennask Summit closes

Exposure. The Connector is a four-lane freeway across an open plateau that stays above 1,500 m for most of the way between Aspen Grove and the summit, and there is nothing to stop the wind: drifting and whiteout close lanes here when the Okanagan below is dry. The other reason is the Peachland side — the long, steep grades out of the valley, where the first wet snow of the season catches traffic on summer tires, as it did on 29 October 2025.

The dated closures, with the province's own releases for each, are on the Highway 97C page.

If Pennask Summit is closed

• Highway 5 to Kamloops, then Highway 1 and 97 through Vernon — about 1 h 55 min longer than the direct road when both are open, 254 km against 143 km for Pennask Summit, Merritt to Peachland. Round the north end by Kamloops and Vernon. All of it is lower than the Connector, which is the point; it is also two to three times the distance.

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 ↗.

Pennask Summit by the month

Thirty-year normals from the nearest Environment and Climate Change Canada station with a full record: Peachland, 26 km away and 1,383 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 PEACHLAND (1126070), 345 m, through the MSC GeoMet API.

Related Roads

Pennask Summit Road Weather FAQ

Is Pennask Summit open right now?

No full closures are reported on Pennask Summit. No lane closures or roadworks are reported either.

What are Pennask Summit road conditions today?

The map on this page colors the route along Pennask Summit by what is on the pavement right now — dry, wet, slush, snow or ice — from radar and surface data, last updated Sep 20, 2026 5:33 AM PDT. Right now temperatures run from 9°C to 12°C and the strongest wind is 19 km/h.

Do I need chains on Pennask Summit today?

In a car, no. Pennask Summit 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 9°C.

What is the weather forecast for Pennask Summit this week?

At the summit, Sep 20 to Sep 25: highs 6-22°C, lows 2-7°C. Snow or ice is forecast on the road Fri. It is a forecast rather than a measurement, and the later days are less certain than the earlier ones.

How often are Pennask Summit 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.