EDMONTON - Above-freezing temperatures and barely a skiff of snow on the ground — this isn’t shaping up to be a greeting card Christmas Day.
Edmonton International Airport has less than half the 16 centimetres of snow it had last Christmas Eve, and when the last gifts are unwrapped, the mercury is expected to hit 5 C downtown, far higher than the -10 C reached in 2010.
While that might appeal to weather-weary adults, it isn’t going over well with kids.
“I sort of wanted to go skiing. I don’t like it that there’s no snow,” 10-year-old Kent Maclure said Friday, a day so mild a hotdog vendor set up outside City Hall.
“It just doesn’t make it as fun.”
He and his brother Mark, 12, might sit inside and watch hockey on Christmas if conditions stop them from doing their favourite outdoor activities, which last winter included building a snow fort as high as the first storey of their house.
The appropriately named Will Snow, 12, also wants more holiday precipitation.
“I’m kind of disappointed. It’s not really a Canadian winter without snow,” he said, adding proper amounts of the white stuff improves the surface at his community league rink.
“Without the snow, it gets kind of chippy. There are a whole bunch of cracks in the ice. I think the snow fills in the cracks.”
However, people will be able to try out any skates they find under the tree at two of Edmonton’s most popular outdoor rinks after crews overcame the elements to inaugurate the ponds in Hawrelak and Rundle parks.
“We have been working extra people, extra shifts, getting the snow off, long hours, no breaks, just so we can get it open for Christmas,” park leader Wayne Sager said.
“That’s when people really want it.”
The ice is thick enough to hold a pickup plow truck, but too thin to support watering vehicles, so staff have done the best they can to create a smooth skating surface by spraying hoses from the shore, Sager said.
“It’s warm, warm, warm. We’re really happy we’re even getting them open.”
The two ponds began operating at 2 p.m. Friday and will be available daily from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
The outdoor Victoria skating oval, built on grass to provide what Sager describes as Edmonton’s best ice, opened two weeks ago and can be used by the public most days from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Tobogganing hills maintained in city parks remain closed because there isn’t enough snow.
This includes A.C.T. Hill and Walton’s Mountain in Rundle Park, Government House Park, Gallagher Park, Emily Murphy Park and Castle Downs.
Craig Turner, assistant manager of Totem Outfitters, said overall sales of sports equipment such as cross-country skis are down.
“I don’t mind driving on the clear streets, but I also have a young daughter I want to take out sledding, so I hope it snows a couple more feet. The hill near our house in Mill Woods, it’s almost bare.”
His wish might soon be granted. Chris Scott, a meteorologist with The Weather Network, agreed December 2011 has been mild.
“We’re some six degrees above normal for our average high … That’s quite significant,” he said.
“There’s a bit of white, but there’s not enough to take a snowmobile on or even toboggan on.”
The balmy weather might turn cold in hurry by the middle of January.
“Based on history in central Alberta, things change very quickly,” Scott said.
“I wouldn’t be surprised at an abrupt pattern change, where it’s mild for the next 10 days or two weeks, then it’s like a band snapping and we go down to the minus teens or 20s.
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