Warm weather leaving puddles on Stuart Park rink

KELOWNA – The unseasonably warm weather of the last few days has resulted in pools of water developing on the outdoor rink at Stuart Park, threatening the popular facility with daytime closure.

“That’s been the pattern that we’ve seen over the last few years, especially in the early or late season,” arenas supervisor Steve Fagan says. “Closed during the day, then open at night when it freezes up.”

Fagan says people driving by the facility, which just opened Dec. 1, would be mistaken to assume the ice has melted.

“It kind of looks like that if you don’t get up close,” Fagan says. “There is water on the surface right now but it will eventually freeze. Mother nature is helping us make ice.”

The ice at Stuart Park is kept chilled by heat-exchanging pipes that run from City Hall under Water Street to the park. Fagan says the pipes can keep the ice in decent shape up to about 7 Celsius before water pools will start to develop.

“If it hadn’t been overcast and cloudy today, if the sun had been shining, we probably would have had a daytime closure today,” Fagan said yesterday, Dec. 9.

Kelowna started the week with a high of 8 C but is expected to return to more seasonable weather by early next week.

The rink is open from 6 a.m to 11 p.m. daily through sometime in late February, weather permitting. Admission is free. Skate rentals are available daily (except Christmas) from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

To contact a reporter for this story, email John McDonald at jmcdonald@infonews.ca or call 250-808-0143. To contact the editor, email mjones@infonews.ca or call 250-718-2724.