Snow puts skating on ice
Skaters were frustrated this weekend as the outdoor ice rink at Stuart Park was closed Saturday and Sunday morning because snow wasn't cleared away.
People showing up to take a spin on the rink were surprised late Sunday morning to see it still covered under several inches of snow.
“I thought they'd get on it quicker than this, because it's a pretty popular place to come on a weekend,” would-be skater Robin Lambert said after arriving at the rink with his two young sons.
The rink was closed all day Saturday as the Kelowna area received seven centimetres of snow, according to Environment Canada's monitoring station at the UBC Okanagan campus.
Snowfall accumulations were higher elsewhere.
Record snowfall for Kelowna on Feb. 17 was in 2012, at 9.8 cm, according to Environment Canada meteorologist Jennifer Hay.
Kevin Laflamme, who has a city contract to rent skates at Stuart Park’s ice rink, said he showed up at the park early Sunday to be told by security guards that the city’s snow-removal contractor hadn't arrived.
“The snow removal at the rink this year has been the worst it’s ever been,” said Laflamme, who has had the skate rental contract since 2013. “But I guess the contractor has a list of priorities, and the rink isn't near the top of the list.
“I'm a little disappointed, because that's lost revenue for me, but what can you do?” Laflamme said. “It’s not that bad this morning with the temperature, and I think a lot of people would have liked to come skating.”
There’s an ice maintenance vehicle at the rink but it can’t be used to clear the ice sufficiently to allow skating after a significant snowstorm.
Even if they wanted to, members of the public couldn’t use shovels to clear the rink themselves because of liability issues.
The rink opened for public use at 12:30 p.m.
With Arctic air now entrenched in the Okanagan, clear but cold temperatures are forecast for the week. Monday's high will be just -5 C with an overnight low of -13 C tonight. However, that's still about six degrees warmer than the record cold temperatures for the third week of February.
Weather conditions will moderate slightly toward the weekend.
The Stuart Park ice rink usually shuts down in early March.