Warm weather leads to challenges for outdoor rink ice makers

Sunny and warm-weather days are typically welcomed in Saskatchewan during the winter, but for those in charge of flooding and maintaining outdoor rinks, it’s a sight they might not want to see.

Over the next week, most cities and towns throughout the province are going to experience above-normal temperatures reaching past the freezing mark during the day, which could lead to some rinks turning from ice into slush.

“With this warm trend coming through, it’s going to cause some damage,” said Greg Nichole, who’s in charge of building and maintaining the ice at the Clarence Downey Oval in Saskatoon.

“It’s nice having the sun out and lots of people out, but with the sunshine on the ice, it starts to melt it and makes it real soft.”

The warm weather should lead to what will be a busy time for Nichole, who will face many obstacles keeping his sheet of ice open and fresh.

“We’ll be out there fixing holes (and) fixing cracks and we’ll be open as long as we can. If the ice gets soft, we don’t want people skating on it because it’s not safe,” he explained.

Nichole mentioned in his time as the main ice maker for the oval, he has never had a year like this.

“This will be my fifth year looking after the ice and this has been one of the toughest years we’ve had,” he added.

The challenges for Nichole and his crew began early in the season. They had to wait until the middle of December to get the oval up and running because of the mild temperatures and the lack of snow the city experienced during the holiday season.

“It was Dec. 4 (when) we were able to start flooding the oval. We would come early in the morning when the temperatures were cool and then again at night,” he explained.

The oval was operational over the course of the Christmas break, but then saw usage limited as a cold snap hit the province early in the new year.

Now that the cold snap is out of the province and a warm front is heading for Saskatchewan, some might think the warm weather could spell an end of the season for the oval. But Nichole is determined to keep things up and running for a bit longer.

“We’ve got a lot of winter left,” he said. “I’m sure this will fly by and we’ll get some colder temperatures. We try to (keep the ice) until that first week of March.

“I’ve been driving a Zamboni for 15 years now and I enjoy doing it,” he added. “It’s rewarding. You see the people come out and skate and they’re smiling and appreciate what we do out here.”