Mild weather melts Winnipeg outdoor skating rinks into thin ice, forcing closure
Environment Canada says warmup is unusual, but not unprecedented, and temperatures will plunge next week
Outdoor skating rinks and trails in Winnipeg are closing to the public not long after they opened, after a stretch of mild winter weather melted the attractions into thin ice and water.
Ashley Stokes planned to take her son and daughter for their first skate of the season at The Forks. But on Friday morning, the venue cordoned off its two public ice rinks and closed its one-kilometre on-land skating trails.
"We finally get some nice weather to go skating, but we can't because it turns into a pool right away," Stokes said.
The family had to switch to indoor skating for the day. It's not as fun as skating outdoors surrounded by Christmas lights, Stokes said, but the only option available.
Changes in the weather patterns have also led her family to pick up other winter sports that rely less on ice, like GT snow-race sledding.
"I'm not sure what to hope for," Stokes said. "We're staying indoors for now until it gets a little bit colder."
Over the last few days the temperature in Winnipeg warmed from a low -5 C on Wednesday to a high of 2 C on Friday, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada data.
A meteorologist with the federal agency said the warm-up in southern Manitoba at this time of the year is unusual but not unprecedented.
"We've had situations like this in the past," Kyle Ziolkowski said. In this case, it's due a pocket of warm air sitting on the prairies that will move in coming days, making way for an Arctic ridge that will plunge the temperature back to -15 C by Wednesday.
But in the meantime at The Forks, its featured canopy rink pooled into a puddle of ice water on Friday afternoon.
"The warm temperatures that we've been seeing, it is simply not being very skatable, they are becoming a little mushy," Zach Peters, communications and marketing manager at The Forks, said.
Many of The Forks' winter attractions opened to the public a week ago, and they will remain temporarily closed until temperatures drop and stay below the freezing mark. Cloudy days without warmer air from the sunlight beaming on the ice could also speed up their reopening.
Peters said it's also important people avoid skating or even stepping on the rinks and trail while they are closed.
"When a trail is a little bit mushy, and skaters go on it leaving skate blade marks and other ruts … it just makes it harder for the team to scrape and reflood and get back to a really nice skating condition," he said.
Concerns over thin ice
Other outdoor rinks in Winnipeg closed on Friday, including the three Corydon Community Centre rinks and The Riley Family Duck Pond at Assiniboine Park.
"It's a decision that's made just out of an abundance of caution … there's a concern about the possibility of thin ice," said Laura Cabak, director of communications for the Assiniboine Park Conservancy.
For the venue, closing its rink just shy of a week after opening is rather unusual.
Cabak said aside from last year's milder winter when the pond opened to skaters in January, the pond tends to stay open for skaters from December into February or March without shutting down.
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"It's disappointing, especially when families have children home from school and are looking for things to do," she said.
But the request remains: stay off the ice until it is safe to skate on it again.
The Manitoba government is also relaying a safety message, reminding the public that ice in southern Manitoba is still forming at this time of the year and in some locations could be dangerously thin.
In a Friday news release the province asked anglers, ice fishers and other outdoor enthusiasts to evaluate ice conditions, let someone know their expected location and carry a communication device to call for help if needed.
With files from Santiago Arias Orozco