Unseasonably warm weather in Edmonton this week is being welcomed by many, but it’s proving a bit difficult for the city’s winter attractions.
The City of Edmonton hasn’t yet been able to open its iceways at Victoria Park and Rundle Park. And while the Victoria Park Oval is open, its status is tentative.
“We’re looking at some pretty warm weather coming up in the next week, so we’re going to be evaluating it probably just about every day to see if we’re going to keep it open to the public,” said Bryan Turner with the city.
“If it was constantly cold weather we wouldn’t have to do that evaluation.”
The average high for December in Edmonton is -4.5 C, according to Global Edmonton meteorologist Jesse Beyer. The average high for the first seven days of December this year was 2.1 C, Beyer said.
On Friday afternoon, the thermometer hovered around the 6 C mark in Edmonton. The warm weather was enough for one skater to go shirtless at Victoria Park. Anton Goulko was working up a sweat over his lunch hour, and said the ice conditions were great.
“The weather is fantastic. The ice is great,” Goulko said. “It gets warm here and it’s a shame that so few people are actually using this facility right now.
“It’s not a hot sun, it’s still low down on the horizon so all it does is fill those small little cracks and makes the ice as smooth as possible.”
Watch below: Take a tour of Edmonton’s skating pathways
Down in Hawrelak Park, the artists behind the ice castle have been hard at work building the structure since mid-October. They turned on the sprinklers to begin building the massive icicles on Nov. 19, with ideal temperatures to get a good base going for the castle.
But over the past week or so, the warmer-than-expected temperatures have been less than ideal, even if they aren’t necessarily detrimental to the project.
“It’s a bit warm,” lead artist Christian Denis said. “Ideally, we’d like to have it a little bit colder so that we can build faster.
“We’re down in a low spot in the valley so we’re able to get a couple of degrees colder than what Edmonton’s forecast typically indicates.”
READ MORE: What goes into constructing Edmonton’s ice castle?
Denis said the artists are used to working with freeze/thaw cycles, which actually add character to the castle.
“We get these heat waves and it has been happening more and more in the last few years, so I know it’s coming,” he said. “Part of the beauty of the castle is having those fluctuations, having the different temperatures, humidity, wind — all of that. It adds to the beauty and effect of the castle.”
This is the third year Ice Castles has been in Edmonton. This year’s structure will have a smaller footprint, but actually be more interactive, Denis said. The castle will have more archways, three slides and a fireplace.
“[It will be] a more dynamic castle,” he said. “It won’t just be necessarily a perimeter of walls, it’ll be features you can crawl through.”
The goal is to have the ice castle open to the public by the end of December, although Denis admits the warm weather could cause delays if it continues.
“Hopefully we can stretch it out later into the season as well. Both last year and the year before we ended up closing early because of warm weather at the end of the season,” Denis said.
Last year, about 150,000 people visited the attraction.
Edmonton will see highs near 10 C this weekend, with temperatures staying in the 5 C to 8 C range for the next week, Beyer said. Sunday could be windy, with gusts 60-80 km/h wind gusts expected in southwest and central Alberta.