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Snowbanks are about to see their last days in the Chaleur region, according to Environment Canada.

Meteorologist Claude Cote said temperatures for May will be near normal with an average of seven days reaching 20 degrees Celsius or above.

“There’s a sign that warmer than normal conditions are slowly moving in from west to east. In western New Brunswick and Quebec in the past two weeks, it’s been above two to three degrees above normal and the above normal temperatures are slowly moving towards eastern New Brunswick.”

Mr. Cote said the maximum average temperature in May is near 15 degrees and the overnight low is near four degrees.

He said Environment Canada does not predict precipitation but May generally receives less rain than April.

He noted that it is possible the region could see wet flurries in early May but nothing to warrant leaving your snow tires on.

“Usually in May when we look at the average of 30 years, we do get a trace of snow but no accumulation. So in the early May there’s still a possibility to get a little bit of wet flurries but it will not accumulate on the ground.”

This past winter was not kind to the Chaleur region and the numbers prove it. Mr. Cote said Bathurst received a snow fall amount of 492 centimetres which is a record for the last 116 years.

He said the normal snowfall is 298 cm for a Chaleur winter.

Mr. Cote said the only Atlantic Canadian regions to receive more snow than Bathurst were Gander, Newfoundland with 516 cms and Deer Lake, Nfld. with 563 cms.

Mr. Cote said April temperatures in Bathurst were actually slightly above normal with the warmest day coming on April 17 when the thermostat hit 20.7 degrees. He said the coldest day was the morning of April 8 when it was minus nine.

As of April 24, Bathurst also had less precipitation than normal with 42 millimeters compared to the 58 mm norm.

Because of the slightly warmer temperatures and lower than normal precipitation, the snow melted relatively quickly and as of last week, the Bathurst Regional Airport reported eight cms of snow still on the ground.

“We have been losing significantly our pile of snow in the past two weeks. Typically by the end of April we have two centimetres so we had record snowfall but...we’re getting back to normal and by the end of April we’ll probably have about two cm left on the ground,” said Mr. Cote.

Mr. Cote said some areas of water near land still have ice but the waters of the Bay of Chaleur and Gulf of St. Lawrence are moving freely. He said even without the ice, it takes until at least June for the water to warm up and that could have an effect on local temperatures.

“One of the critical elements for the month of May is the wind direction. Every time that we’re going to experience southwest wind in Bathurst, it’s going to be nice and dry and warm. But the water is still pretty cold and it will only be in June by the time it starts to warm up.”

Concluded Mr. Cote: “So every time in Bathurst that we’re going to experience east or northeast winds, our temperature cannot really reach the 20 degrees.”