Warm December means outdoor skating is put on ice

WINNIPEG — With a December warm spell on the way, anyone looking to go for a skate at one of the city’s outdoor arenas may have to wait awhile.

The four rinks at North Kildonan Community Centre, for example, are closed and won’t open for at least two weeks.

READ MORE: Outdoor skating season melting away in Winnipeg 

“For about the next seven days it’s going to be plus one to plus three so that’s going to shut us down totally,” said Terry Stafeckis who’s looked after the ice at the community centre for over 30 years.

Stafeckis is hoping to have the ice ready for skating on December 18, which would the latest it’s been ready in the last 30 years.

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He’s kept track of the opening dates since 1986 and says the skating season keep getting shorter.

“It was always cold enough after Remembrance Day and then you`d go at it which is usually about the eleventh of November and you`d open by about December first,” he said.

That trend is one climate experts are seeing as well.

“We’re looking at a very small winter recreation season, a shrinking recreation season,” said Danny Blair a climate scientist and associate dean of science at the University of Winnipeg.

“In the winters of the future there will be no outdoor skating except in very unusual circumstances,” he continued.

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At The Forks, the outdoor skating rinks are nowhere near ready to open but nobody is pushing the panic button yet.

“We know it’s going to get cold. It’s Winnipeg. It typically gets cold at some point and once that weather is consistently cold enough to build the skating rinks and the trails that`s when we`ll start going to town,” said Kristin Pauls, communications coordinator.

It’s still unclear if the warm spell will affect the Red River Mutual Trail.  Preparations for its opening usually begin in January.