SASKATOON – This winter, or lack thereof has been one for the record book. But, the above seasonal conditions aren’t loved by everyone.
Peter Fogarty, logistics manager at the Frosted Gardens, says the warm weather is to blame for the delayed open and early close.
“The weather just kept on going up and down and changing. Once it starts staying in direct sunlight and above zero for the duration that we’re having now and we had through this last week, we decided that we just couldn’t stay open,” says Fogarty.
READ MORE: Earth experienced its warmest January on record
As Fogarty begins to demolish what remains of the ice sculptures with a sledge hammer, he is also tallying up the financial hit.
“We’re working on some of those numbers,” says Fogarty.
“I mean it’s in the ten-thousand dollar plus for sure.”
The Frosted Gardens aren’t the only activity taking a hit. Local hockey arenas like the one in Vanscoy struggle to maintain ice quality.
“Generally to have any kind of ice that you can skate on you have to have about minus ten consistently or colder,” says Robb McGill, Vanscoy recreation board president.
“The colder the better because once it starts heating up past that minus ten range, it actually gets warmer than that inside of the dome. So if it’s only minus ten outside you can probably expect to be minus two or warmer in there.”
This has caused problems in scheduling, teams are wary to book games and tournaments at arenas with unstable ice conditions.
“When they think about booking a tournament, right, if they’re booking it six weeks out. The weather is such as factor here they don’t know if they can trust in booking with us because it might be too warm,” says McGill.
That uncertainty is taking a toll on the local arena’s balance sheet.
“We actually had a rec board meeting last night and we’re projecting probably a loss this year of maybe seven to eight thousand dollars.”
Currently, there’s no change in the forecast. Temperatures are expected to hover around zero until March.