From the Canadian Department of Redundancy and the Journal of Paleohockey comes this hilarious study via press release that I first thought was a spoof. Sadly it is all too real. This a candidate for the Dr. David Viner Award.*
Children just aren’t going to know what hockey is.
Pond hockey heats up
Outdoor skating threatened by rising temperatures
Montreal, March 5, 2012 — Would Wayne Gretzky have blossomed into the Great One had he not honed his skills on a backyard rink as a kid? It’s a good thing that he grew up before global warming began wreaking havoc with our weather because the days of a game of shinny on that frozen pond are numbered.
The length of Canada’s outdoor skating season has decreased significantly, according to findings just published in Environmental Research Letters by Damon Matthews, professor in Concordia’s Department of Geography, Planning and environment — along with McGill colleagues, professor Lawrence Mysak and former graduate student Nikolay Damyanov. The evidence is already making headlines. Earlier this year, Ottawa’s Rideau Canal Skateway, the world’s longest skating rink, had to shut down due to warmer-than-usual seasonal temperatures.
The proof is in the snowstorms — or lack thereof. Canada has taken more of a hit from global warming compared to other countries. Since 1950, winter temperatures in Canada have increased by more than 2.5°C, which is three times the globally-averaged warming attributed to global warming.
In order to quantify how this temperature rise affects the outdoor rink, the researchers gathered information from outdoor public skating spaces in various Canadian cities. Taking the beginning of the outdoor skating season as the last in a series of three days where the maximum temperature does not go above -5°C, they created a set of weather criteria to determine the length of the outdoor skating season. Subsequently, the researchers counted the number of viable days during which the ice could be maintained to estimate the season’s length at each of the stations.
By comparing their findings with data gathered over 50 years, from 1951 to 2005, by 142 meteorological stations across the country, the researchers discovered that only a few of the weather stations showed a trend towards later start dates of the outdoor skating season. A much larger proportion of stations, however, showed a statistically significant decrease in the length of the skating season over the past half century.
The results paint a grim picture for the future of outdoor skating. The largest decreases in the skating season length were observed in the Prairies and Southwest regions of Canada. By extrapolating their data to predict future patterns, the researchers came up with some ominous news: within a few decades, we could see a complete end to outdoor skating in British Columbia and Southern Alberta.
No Canadian region is safe from that fate. For Matthews, it’s clear that we are all vulnerable to continued winter warming. “It’s hard to imagine a Canada without outdoor hockey,” he says “but I really worry that this will be a casualty of our continuing to ignore the climate problem and to obstruct international efforts to decrease greenhouse gas emissions.”
“The disappearance of outdoor hockey rinks and probably cross-country ski trails is not going to be good for the health of our youth and the leaders of tomorrow, who need all the exercise they can easily get.” said McGill Emeritus Professor, Lawrence Mysak, Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences.
Related links:
- Cited Study – “Observed decreases in the Canadian outdoor skating season due to recent winter warming”
- Concordia’s Department of Geography, Planning and Environment
- McGill’s Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences
- Environmental Research Letters
For questions to Lawrence Mysak, contact:
Cynthia Lee, Media Relations – McGill University
cynthia.lee@mcgill.ca | T. 514.398.6754 | twitter.com/#!/McGilluMedia
To get in touch with Damon Matthews, contact:
Source:
Cléa Desjardins
Senior advisor, media relations
University Communications Services
Concordia University
Phone: 514-848-2424, ext. 5068
Email: clea.desjardins@concordia.ca
Twitter: twitter.com/concordia
===================================================
*“Children just aren’t going to know what snow is.” The Independent, March 20, 2000.
h/t to bladeshearer
Warm winter down here in Mpls/St.Paul area this year but still had some good outdoor rinks going in spite of it. And oh yeah, last year was a banner year for snow and the rinks flourished. Stupid is as stupid does….
But the sad truth is that warmer climates prevent the possibility of hockey being played. Look at Florida: no hockey teams at all: http://panthers.nhl.com/ You can’t possibly compare that with all the hockey teams in Greenland. The conclusion is obvious: Global Warming is Worse Than We Thought!®
Richard Black is at it again. Alien invaders in Antarctica. Yaaaawn.
[My emphasis]
Then stop visiting there! This reminds me of amphibian diseases introduced by ‘concerned’ scientist on their boots. You really can’t win with these idiots.
And there he was again on the 1st of March:
Can anyone let me know just how much of Richard Black’s pension scheme is tied up in carbon schemes?
August 18, 2005
A whirlwind tour of western Canada and Alaska is leaving Senator Clinton and three of her Republican colleagues more convinced than ever that global warming is a real and menacing phenomenon, the lawmakers said yesterday.
“I don’t think there is any doubt left for anyone who actually looks at the science,” Mrs. Clinton said during a news conference in Anchorage. “There are still some holdouts, but they are facing a losing battle. The science is overwhelming, but what is deeply concerning is that climate change is accelerating.”
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01/07/2012 : NOME
Yet more extreme weather is hitting Nome where, for the first time in 13 years, the temperature hit 40 below zero just after 10 a.m. Thursday morning. The last time it was this cold in Nome was Feb. 1, 1999. The last time a minus 40 reading was taken on Jan. 5 was in 1917.
Temperatures remained “firmly in the 30s below zero” on Friday, according to the weather service, making it the 10th consecutive day with temperatures below minus 30. Temperatures of minus 38 on Jan. 3 and minus 38 on Jan. 4 broke the previous low temperature records for those days.
This is the longest severe cold wave since a record-breaking 16-day stretch from Jan. 15 to 30, 1989. That epic spell saw two days tie Nome’s all-time record low, 54 degrees below zero.
Nome has not seen temperatures above zero since Dec. 23, 2011.
Funny.
I live on a lake in Calgary, which is in Southern Alberta. Not just near one in a lake community, 20 feet from my back door is my dock, with my paddle boats and canoe, on a 43 acre lake. I’m sitting outside now, typing this on my laptop. I look around, and I see several inches of fresh snow. It’s below freezing. The lake is solid. Two days ago they drove the snow plow and Zamboni around to smooth out the skate path that I also use as a runway for my R/C plane. Within sight of my balcony are easily 10 arena sized skating areas that people have shovelled out and maintained through the winter.
Two houses over is where Theoren Fleury used to live, a former NHL star. He used to have a fairly good sized skating area, and often the entire Flames team were here messing around on it. In spring he used to bring kids here to play a game on the lake.
I’ve kept a log here of freeze and thaw dates, since 1996. Guess what the variation is? That’s right… almost zero. The lake freezes and thaws within days of the same time every year, and that’s now over 15 years of record. Even the 1998 thaw was only a few days early.
Ice in Canada forms because of lack of insolation, not because of prevailing weather patterns. In the depths of December when it’s still dark at 8:30 am and already dark before 5pm, there just isn’t enough solar energy to keep the surface liquid.
This “study” by typically clueless individuals is one of the most entertainingly STUPID things I’ve read for a long time. But, I’m expecting more of this over the next few years…
The snow and ice dead of Eastern Europe this winter will agree. The Danube froze over by the way and caused a few shipping movement problems. It called the weather!!!!
Further to my point about Richard Black’s usual rubbish he said:
Did you see it?
nc: How can a restaurant be carbon neutral? Are they selling stones for food? Who are their customers – trolls?
I know you’r just passing on what some numnut reported, but it always irks me when someone says they are carbon neutral.
It’s too bad the poor Canadians aren’t going to be smart enough to take off their skates and put on some running shoes or soccer cleats, etc. They are doomed! It makes you wonder how the rest of us get by without outdoor skating.
Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s I used to make ice rinks in the winter (London, Ontario – not that far away from Gretzky’s Brantford). It was frustrating as you would get the rink in good shape and then a warm spell would destroy the ice in 4-5 days. If we had 2-3 weeks of constant rink use we were happy. My father came home one night with a newspaper clipping of a kid who scored 343 goals in one season. He showed it to me and I laughed – house league I said. It was Wayne. So much for me.
In 1989 – 1994 I lived in Cambridge, Ontario – closer to Brantford. We had outdoor ice rinks although with the same problem – a couple of good weeks and then melting.
Now in 2012 I live near Guelph, Ontario. Not that far away from Brampton. We can make an ice rink if we want (just waiting for grand-children).
So not much has changed in my neck of the woods in 40 years. And I met Wayne’s father so I must be telling the truth (he is a great guy).
The first time in a while I actually watched Globull news BC was when this story came on. One tiny point: Southwest Alberta (where I was born and raised is “Chinook Country” whith a wildly variable winter climate at the best of times. Build the rink when it’s -10, 3 days later it melts at +15. Story of my childhood. Nothing new here.
dwright
I’ve made a nice outdoor rink in southeast Michigan starting in 2007. But, this year was a bust. One bad year out of five isn’t bad. During the 90’s and early 2000’s it would be have very difficult to have an outdoor rink. Luckily, on average, winters have gotten colder in the region.
OK, OK. I’ll bite. (Betraying my south Texas and other civilized climates where I grew up and have lived.)
Why do you have to “build” a outdoor hockey rink? Why worry about melting – Seems that you build a ring or dig a shallow hole in the ground the size of your desired rink – though I assume you need some minimum size to qualify for actual games. If you’re extravegent, build a permanent retaining wall at a convenient place, and keep the walls from season to season to hold the ice surface for next winter.
The fill it with water to a level surface. When the local weather gets cold enough, let that standing water freeze. Smooth the ice to remove debris and crack-driven high spots. (This would be hard manually – It’s why the Zamboni’s are neededl in indoor rinks for high-quality skating after all.) You’re done. If it melts completely over two or three days, or if the surface melts in only a few places, the water collects and (later) re-freezes over the old ice.
. From your descriptions, it’s GOT to be harder than that – but I can’t see what I’m missing.
RACookPE1978:
Try this: build a pond in your back yard, make it, say, 20′ x 20′. Make it about 6″ deep, maybe use some 2×6’s as edges. Now fill it to the top and keep it there for a week. What’s that? It all drained into the soil, right? So, maybe try a plastic underlayer. That’s still harder than it sounds, but lets assume you know what you’re doing and you do that. Now, keep it there for a week.
Now assume you have your 20×20 rink, and it’s frozen solid. Now you need to shovel snow off of it throughout the winter. Did you leave enough room to put the snow? Do you have a place to put your skates on and take them off? Is 20×20 big enough for your kids to play some midget hockey? Uh oh,,, a warm front came through and it’s melted again. Now it’s -30 and the thing has frozen as rough as mini mountain ranges. You shovel it, but there’s no way you’re fitting a mini Zamboni in there to smooth it out, so you have to run your hose to get a smooth layer of water to freeze. Make sure there’s enough edge to hold the water in or it’s just going to wash off the edge. Hoses don’t like cold temperatures, and the outdoor faucet is probably going to freeze if you don’t do this quickly and drain it right. If they freeze, they break.
Meanwhile, as you’re spending 20 hours per week just keeping your mini-rink skateable, the kids are going to the local arena for their practise and can’t figure out why “dad” is wasting so much time on the mini-rink…
RACookPE1978 says
No, not a bad question at all.
As I recall, it has to built up in layers (called flooding) to prevent buckling and cracking.
Maintenance is easy, shaving it with a steel snow shovel, flood again.
Remember I am talking about Dad built yard rinks for the little kids. (and so are they, trying to tug heartstrings)
Older kids go to the Rec Center.
dwright
I live in Lethbridge, Alberta – southwest part of Alberta, an hour from the Rockies. The last outdoor rink in my part of Lethbridge was dismantled around 1977, because it was more work than it is worth. We live in the Chinook belt which kills outdoor rinks, snow drifts, and fools plants into leafing out early. In fact, outdoor rinks in most communities out here are long gone and have been replaced by indoor arenas.
As a kid growing up in Wisconsin in the 60s, we spent a lot of our winter spare time with our skates on, playing tag and pick up hockey games.. and just skating for miles, when the ice had little or no snow cover on Big Green Lake.
Now, when I return to Wisconsin for a winter time visit, I don’t see any kids out skating or playing hockey on the frozen lakes and mill ponds… and very few kids ice fishing. They are at home, updating their facebook pages, with 5 chat windows going while they play with their Wii Wiis.
It is no wonder they get fat… Their chosen entertainments are sessile to a large degree.
To CodeTech : March 6, 2012 at 4:08 pm
Many thanks for that. That is where we get proper science. Proper data!
I read the first three paragraphs of the story, ’til I got to the snippet, “Since 1950, winter temperatures in Canada have increased….”. Then I knew – not that I ever doubted otherwise – that the rest was going to be just another trolled selection of data that rides the Pacific and Atlantic oscillation warmings and ignores the cooling from the 1930’s. Winter temperatures do exist prior to 1950, but including the hot 20’s and 30’s would trash the story.
The warmers do this over and over and over again, enough that once I read “since 1950”, I figure there’s nothing to see here, and move on.