THUNDER BAY – The calendar flipping to May hasn’t brought an end to winter weather.
Coming off an April that was not only cooler than normal, but also dropped nearly twice the average amount of snow on Thunder Bay with 25 centimetres, the second day of May has brought more snow.
Environment Canada meteorologist Peter Kimbell said a couple of centimetres are expected to fall on Thursday, the second snowfall of the week after Monday also brought a fresh blanket of snow.
“That trend unfortunately seems to be continuing into the month of May,” Environment Canada meteorologist Peter Kimbell said. “Not quite the same amount as we saw on Monday, but low and behold here we are and it’s continuing.”
“It’s just unpleasant for people who are looking forward to summer.”
Late spring snow events in May are not particularly uncommon. Kimbell said the city gets an average of nearly two centimetres of snow during the month.
“Here we are and we’re getting it,” Kimbell said. “Hopefully that is it. But that being said, there is shower activity expected Friday night into Saturday. I don’t think we’re looking for snow at all. Temperatures will be quite a lot warmer than we’ve seen recently, on Saturday with a higher of 16C. I don’t want to rule it out entirely, but the probability is pretty small.”
After Thursday, Environment Canada is projecting daily highs in double digits for the next six days. The forecasted 16 C on Saturday is the warmest, followed by four days ranging between 11 C and 13 C.
Kimbell said Thunder Bay has a normal daily high of 14 C for this time of year. Apart from reaching a balmy high of 20 C on April 25, this year has been cooler.
“We haven’t seen a lot of that lately,” Kimbell said. “We have seen warm air that will come sooner or later in Thunder Bay. But I don’t think we’ll be seeing that anytime soon.”
“I think the message is cooler than average for the next week at least.”
