Junction Triangle

Staff at Campbell are often asked why the rink closes at the end of February instead of staying open until the end of spring break. The answer has to do with the sun and the physics of ice-making.

Before I go on maybe I should remind people that the ice at Campbell is made artificially. There is a compressor that sends cooling fluid through pipes that run under the rink surface. It works much like a refrigerator. Since the ice is cooled from the bottom air temperature is not that important. You can have good ice on relatively warm days, but when the sun rises high in the sky it melts the ice even on cold days. In December when the sun doesn't rise high you can have good ice in temperatures that are above freezing but in March when the sun climbs higher the ice melts even if the temperature is below zero. If anyone is interested in the details they can read this page on the CityRinks website run by CELOS.

Campbell staff see this in February when on bright cold days the ice starts to melt along the north boards often becoming slush. I remember one weekend this February where we had good ice on an overcast Saturday and bad ice when the sun came out on Sunday. Dufferin Grove was scheduled to stay open until March 14, but it closed on Friday March 5 because the ice was so bad. Somebody at Campbell asked me about Harbourfront which stays open in March. A friend of mine was at Harbourfront today. She said much of the rink surface was closed while skaters were confined to a small area.

CELOS, the non-profit group founded by Jutta Mason that helps with the programming at Dufferin Grove, Wallace-Emerson and Campbell, has been pushing the City to open the rinks in November because the sun is low then and you can have good ice even if the air temperature is well above freezing.

It feels like Winter has finally started. Too bad it's the last weekend of skating at the park. Looking forward to it.