Winter weather cools to accommodate outdoor activities at last

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This article was published 31/12/2023 (687 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

On unsteady skates, Laura Russell carved a cautious circle around the Riley Family Duck Pond at Assiniboine Park Sunday afternoon, eager to make the most of an unseasonably balmy New Year’s Eve day.

The Winnipeg woman and her family laced up for the first time this winter, joining dozens of others who ventured out on the ice as Environment Canada tracked temperatures hovering around -8 C.

“I’m a little shaky, but getting the hang of it — it’s like riding a bike,” Russell said, laughing and grabbing onto her teenage son for balance.

“(The weather) is nice, but it’s weird. There is not enough snow to really partake in all the usual winter activities. Like going to The Forks river trail or going tobogganing, things like that.”

While the Duck Pond and accompanying washrooms and warming stations opened Friday, the park’s toboggan hill and cross-country ski trails remain closed.

Other Winnipeg winter attractions, including the Nestawaya River Trail at The Forks, are similarly shuttered as the province continues to experience warm weather.

On Sunday, the City of Winnipeg website reported all 43 city-operated outdoor skating sites were open to the public, although the information had not been updated since Dec. 22, when civic offices closed for the holidays.

“It’s definitely not the average for this time of year … typically, for this time of year we will see daytime highs of around -13 C, and so that’s really not where we are,” Environment Canada meteorologist Justin Shaer said by phone.

Canada has logged several days of record-breaking daytime temperatures across the prairie region (which includes Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta) this month, although no records have been set in Winnipeg, he said.

The weather service is tracking a cold front expected to settle over southern Manitoba later this week, with daytime temperatures projected to dip to -16 C by Jan. 5 and overnight lows hitting -19 C.

According to historical data, those numbers will mark a return to closer to normal weather patterns, with the average highs up to -12.5 C and lows around -23 C for the first week of January.

The recent warmth generated plenty of speculation in the weeks before Dec. 25, with people wondering whether the city would experience a white Christmas — defined by Environment Canada as a Christmas morning with at least two centimetres of snow on the ground.

In the end, there was just enough powder to meet the criteria, at least according to measurements at the Winnipeg James Armstrong Richardson International Airport weather station.

“It was right on the dot, pretty much,” Shaer said.

The mild weather has presented challenges for businesses and attractions that rely on ice and snow, he said.

Staff at The Forks are trying to overcome such challenges by working at night or during the early morning hours to flood and maintain the ice quality on skating surfaces while temperatures are low, said spokesperson Zach Peters.

The Forks Market Canopy Rink opened Dec. 22, but was temporarily closed just days later when high temperatures softened the ice. The site reopened on boxing day, thanks to the diligence of ice crews, he said.

Similar efforts are underway to open the Winnipeg 150 Winter Park and the CN Stage Rink, both of which could open as early as next week. The on-land trails and rinks are usually ready by this stage of winter, he said.

“It’s been this weird fluctuating weather,” he said. “It just takes that really rigorous schedule of flooding, making sure those floods set and freeze and then getting another freeze down as soon as possible.”

The entirety of the Nestawaya River trail network — which typically stretches six kilometres, from Churchill Drive on the Red River to Hugo Street on the Assiniboine — remains closed.

While crews are beginning to venture onto the ice to test its depth and quality, they are doing so cautiously and no portion of the network will open to the public until the ice is at least a foot thick, Peters said.

The Forks spokesman noted it is not uncommon for the river trails to remain closed until mid-January.

“We are still in that window where it is starting to freeze up, but, obviously, it is not safe to be on yet and we highly recommend people do not try to get on the ice,” he said.

“We are a ways away, and we don’t want to put a time frame on it yet, but the weather does appear to be turning colder and that will only hopefully help to expedite the process.”

The trail network will open in stages if ice conditions become favourable, with the Port Rink, located on the Red River near The Forks Market, opening first. Sections of the trail along the Assiniboine River will open next, with the Red River portions coming last.

Whether or not the Nestawaya opens in its entirety will depend on the ice, he said, pointing to the 2020 winter season when the trail remained closed.

“That year, it wasn’t even about warmth it was about how the ice set, so it actually froze and then fell quite a bit. It was just unsafe,” he said. “The number one rule for us is the safety of the general public.”

Once open, people could possibly remain on the Nestawaya until mid-March. Historically, the longest skating season The Forks has recorded on the trail was 76 days.

tyler.searle@freepress.mb.ca