Welcome

Kamloops is a city in south central British Columbia, Canada, at the confluence of the two branches of the Thompson River and near Kamloops Lake. It is the seat of the Thompson-Nicola Regional District. Kamloops is also the Tournament Capital of Canada.

The Thompson South Rural Crime Watch Association (TSRCWA) serves Kamloop's rural areas. If you'd like to become a member please to the T'Kumlups Rural RCMP Detachment at 395 Yellowhead Highway (Across from Sun Rivers) in Kamloops and pick up the information. You'll receive an application form and be required to produce a drivers license for identification in completing the Criminal Records Check.


Kamloops Geography and location

Kamloops is situated in the Thompson Valley where the central core of the city is located near the confluence of the North and South branches of the Thompson River. Suburbs stretch for more than a dozen kilometers along both North and South branches, as well as to the steep hillsides along the south portion of the city.
Kamloops Indian Band areas begin just to the northeast of the downtown core but are not located within the city limits. As a result of this placement, it is necessary to leave Kamloops' city limits and pass through the band lands before re-entering the city limits to access the communities of Raleigh and Heffley Creek. Kamloops is surrounded by the smaller communities of Cherry Creek, Pritchard, Savona, Scotch Creek, Adams Lake, Chase, and various others, many of which are included in the Thompson-Nicola Regional District (TNRD).

History

Kamloops and the Thompson River, 1886The Kamloops area was exclusively inhabited by the Secwepemc (Shuswap) nation (part of the Interior Salish language group) prior to the arrival of European settlers.
The first European explorers arrived in 1811, and David Stewart set up Fort Kamloops, a fur trading post, on the south side of the river junction for the Pacific Fur Company in 1812.
The North West Company quickly established Fort Thompson on the northeast side of the junction, and the following year the Pacific Fur Company left the area. In 1821, the Hudson's Bay Company merged with the North West Company and took control of the fur trade at Fort Thompson. In 1842, a new Fort Kamloops was built on the northwest side of the junction.
The gold rush of the 1860s and the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway in the 1880s brought further growth, resulting in the City of Kamloops being incorporated in 1893 with a population of about 500.
"Kamloops" is the anglicized version of the Shuswap word "Tk'emlups", meaning 'meeting of the waters'. Shuswap is still actively spoken in the area by members of the Kamloops Indian Band. Another possible origin of the name comes from the French "Camp des loups" meaning 'Camp of Wolves', likely spoken by fur traders.

Industry

Major Kamloops-area industries include primary resource processing such as Domtar Kamloops' Pulp Mill, Tolko-Heffley Creek Plywood and Veneer, LaFarge Cement, Highland Valley Copper Mine (in Logan Lake), and various other industries. There are tertiary services as well, such as the British Columbia Lottery Corporation and Pollard Banknote (which makes the lottery tickets) and NRI distribution, among many others.
Kamloops is also a transportation hub for the region due to its connections to Highways 5 and 97C, the Trans-Canada and Yellowhead Highways. It is the first major city east of Abbotsford on the highway. Kamloops is home to Kamloops Airport, which is a small international airport: however, there are constituent pressures to accommodate larger aircraft. Due to a persistent disagreement between the City's federal Liberal Party Mayor, Terry Lake, and the area's Conservative Member of Parliament, Betty Hinton, there is no federal funding available for the airport's expansion.[5] Update: the federal government has agreed to fund their share of the airport expansion. There has also been speculation of an inland rail port.

Climate

Locator map for Kamloops, BCThe climate of Kamloops is a semi-arid steppe climate (Koppen climate classification BSk) due to its rainshadow location. While situated in a semi-arid valley, Kamloops has winters that are generally mild and very short with an occasional cold snap where temperatures can drop to around -30 °C (-22 °F) when arctic air floods over the Rocky Mountains into the interior. Snow can occur from November to March, but most of it falls over a few weeks in December and January. Winter mean minimum temperature is -7.6 °C (20 °F) in January.
Perhaps surprisingly, considering that Kamloops is located at 50° latitude north, summers are quite hot with prevailing dry, and sunny weather. The average July maximum temperature is 28.3 °C (83 °F) and would be higher if not for occasional incursions of cool northerly airmasses. In most years, one might confuse this city with any in southern California, as summer temperatures come close to or even exceed 40 °C (104 °F). Humidity is generally very low and nighttime temperatures are moderate. These hot, dry conditions make the forest fire threat favourable in the region.
Spring arrives very early, sometimes in February, due to mild air spilling over the coastal mountains from the Pacific Ocean. Fall is generally a pleasant and a mostly dry season.
Kamloops lies in the "rain shadow" leeward of the Coast Mountains and is biogeographically connected to similar semi-desert and desert areas in the Okanagan region, the Osoyoos area, and the central parts of Washington and Oregon state as well as intermontane areas of Nevada in the U.S. These areas of relatively similar climate have many distinctive native plants and animals in common, such as Ponderosa pine (Pinus ponderosa), big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata), prickly pear cactus (Opuntia fragilis in this case), rattlesnakes (Crotalus viridis), Black widow spiders and Lewis's Woodpecker

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