This is a first in more than 50 years: due to too mild winter temperatures, the Rideau Canal Skateway in Ottawa will not open this year.
The National Capital Commission (NCC) made the announcement on Friday morning in a press release, claiming to share “the general disappointment”. “The winter season has been really abnormal,” noted the NCC’s senior facilities and program manager, Bruce Devine, in an interview. It was not possible to prepare the rink according to the standards required for it to be safe. »
He notes that for several weeks, the ice “loses thickness, crumbles and becomes porous”. Since its inauguration in 1971, this is the first time that the 7.8 km track cannot accommodate skaters. According to the NCC website, the ice must be at least 30 centimeters thick for the rink to be open, which is possible when there are 10 to 14 consecutive days of cold weather, i.e. -10 °C to -20°C.
Despite this disappointment, Mr. Devine is optimistic for the next few years. “Last year, we had such a beautiful winter that we opened the entire rink on the first day,” he recalls, adding that a season lasts an average of 47 days, from the beginning of January at the end of February. “It is not written anywhere that there will be no more winter,” he maintains. We are certain that we still have several years to offer with the ice rink. »
Research project
If climate change will have tangible consequences on the skating rink this winter, a team has already been analyzing its future consequences on the ice of the Rideau Canal for a year now. Research teams from Carleton University, in partnership with the NCC, are currently collecting data on the canal.
“Our goal is to create engineering models that can predict ice growth and gather information about climate change,” explains the Carleton University professor in charge of one of the research, Shawn Kenny. With these models, Mr. Kenny and his team are trying to predict what the ice in the area will look like in twenty years. The research project is spread over four years.
“Winters are expected to get warmer, to see more storms: this year there has been twice as much snowfall as last year,” he notes. As it gets warmer, the possibilities for having ice rinks will become more limited. »