Unseasonably-warm weather has closed two of Winnipeg’s ice-skating hot spots days after they opened.
The Riley Family Duck Pond at Assiniboine Park, which opened for skaters on Dec. 21, has been temporarily closed due to warm weather. At The Forks, the winter park skating rinks and trails were shut down Friday morning, a week after opening.
A high of 2 C was recorded in the city Friday, according to data from Environment Canada.
“Essentially, with this type of temperature, they get really mushy and unskateable, or not nice to skate on, and it also just makes it harder to re-flood and make the skating surfaces nice enough again in the future,” Zach Peters, the communications manager at The Forks, said Friday.
“So we closed them temporarily, hoping that overnight temperatures drop enough that we can re-open, but it’s sort of a wait-and-see situation.”
Winnipeg hit 0 C on both Christmas Day and Boxing Day, putting the holiday among the city’s top five warmest Christmases recorded.
The Forks closed the winter park around 11 a.m. Friday. When it will reopen depends if the weather can get cold and stay cold, Peters said.
“I don’t want to put anything on it, because sometimes what we have done is been able to open it for, say, the morning tomorrow, and then if temperatures rise throughout the day, or the sun gets too intense during the day, then have to shut it again,” he said.
“So, really, we let our crew that makes the ice handle that, and let us know day in and day out.”
The Nestaweya River Trail has yet to open this winter. Last year, it opened on Jan. 25, closed five days later due to warm weather, and re-opened Feb. 13 before closing Feb. 17. The trail was open just nine days in total.
Those itching to get on the ice can check to see if The Forks has opened its trails and rinks online, and the Assiniboine Park Conservancy will post the duck pond’s re-opening when weather conditions improve on its website.
The City of Winnipeg’s outdoor skating ponds and pleasure rinks remain open.
malak.abas@freepress.mb.ca
Malak Abas
Reporter
Malak Abas is a city reporter at the Free Press. Born and raised in Winnipeg’s North End, she led the campus paper at the University of Manitoba before joining the Free Press in 2020. Read more about Malak.
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