(Image Credit: Victor Kaisar/CFJC Today)

By Victor Kaisar

Mid-March Snow

Atmospheric river brings, quickly removes mid-March snow in Kamloops area

Mar 16, 2026 | 2:18 PM

KAMLOOPS — Environment Canada says about 8-to-10 centimetres of snow fell in Kamloops during Sunday (March 15) night’s snowstorm, though the snow isn’t expected to stick around for very long.

Early forecasts expected the region to only get a few centimetres of snow, but Kamloops residents went to bed last night and woke up this morning with plenty of snow still on the ground.

“We really did see an atmospheric river that began to move on shore [Sunday] night and associated with that, it really pushed a lot of moisture and some warm air across the southern Interior of British Columbia,” Environment Canada Meteorologist Brian Proctor said.

“We began to see snow showers reported at the airport at about 5:00 p.m. and they continued right through to about 11:00 p.m. last night.”

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Happy first Sunday of spring break to those who celebrate.#kamloops #bcstorm pic.twitter.com/TQnYof9lKh

— Victor Kaisar (@supermario_47) March 16, 2026

Proctor said while the snow that fell was not a record amount, he noted Sunday was one of the biggest snowfall events of the year.

“It was a difficult forecast situation, I’ll be honest with you, trying to determine where the atmospheric river was going to come ashore and what areas would see the most overrunning moisture associated with that,” Proctor added. “We saw that snow a little bit further south than we would have anticipated.”

He said the Shuswap got about 16 centimeters of snow, while areas near Barriere saw 22 centimetres fall. Places like Merritt and Penticton didn’t get much, if any, snow, while Vernon saw about 5 centimetres and Kelowna only got a couple of centimeters.

“The higher elevation areas definitely saw more snow than the low elevation areas, but in general terms, Kamloops experienced quite a bit of snow,” Proctor added.

While plows were out Sunday night, the streets of Kamloops – especially at lower elevation – have long since been cleared, though there is still a bit of snow remaining on some front lawns and boulevards. Snow isn’t expected to last much longer as temperatures are expected to soar into the high teens this week.

“We are bringing warm air in,” Proctor said. “Our overnight lows for much of this work week are going to be in that sort of 8-to-11 C range when typically we should be about -1 C, so it’s really a lot of warm air coming in.”

“It’s a lot of weather on the coast more than anything else. But in general, a fairly nice week to get rid of all that snow is out there.”

While Sun Peaks Resort is reporting 20 centimetres of new snow for the first full week of spring break, Proctor cautioned those conditions are also unlikely to last for very long. The Harper Mountain ski resort, which announced it was closing for the season, may reopen again, though owners said it seems unlikely.

“It’s going to be an interesting week if people are looking to get into some of the higher elevation areas to do some skiing,” Proctor said. “It’s going to be a little bit problematic as our freezing levels have increased significantly to between 2,000 and 2,500 metres with this atmospheric river.”

“People trying to get up to ski are going to have a little bit of a difficult time finding a lot of good snow associated with that, but I think the high temperatures will be enjoyable for most people.”