World’s Largest Ice Skating Rink Reopens in Canada After Lack of Ice in 2023

Ottawa’s 4.85-mile Rideau Canal Skateway, the largest ice skating rink in the world, reopened on Sunday after remaining closed last year due to climate change.

Every winter from January to early March, the gigantic rink on the Rideau Canal — a UNESCO World Heritage Site — is transformed into a commuter’s dream connecting suburbs to the downtown area of Canada’s capital city, EcoWatch reported previously.

The canal’s frozen skateway did not open for the first time last year, the National Capital Commission (NCC) said, because there was not enough ice, Reuters reported. The lack of ice was said to have been caused by a mild winter due to climate change.

“Our team learned a lot from the challenges we faced last year and were able to put measures in place, helped by more seasonal temperatures, to make it happen this year,” said Tobi Nussbaum, CEO of NCC, as reported by Reuters.

The famous skating rink first opened 53 years ago.

“The idea to turn the Rideau Canal into a skateway came from then-newly appointed NCC chair Doug Fullerton. In January 1971, a team of NCC employees armed with brooms and shovels turned his idea into a reality,” NCC said. “At the area between the bridges, lighting and music were added to increase the enjoyment of skating in the evening… That season, hundreds of thousands of residents and visitors made their way onto the ice to start a new winter tradition.”

The icy throughway is the site of Winterlude, three weekends of community events featuring Indigenous arts and crafts, ice sculptures and street performers.

Last year was not the first time the Rideau winter wonderland closed due to warm temperatures. The El Niño winter of 2015-16 also caused the natural rink to shut down after its first month because of thin ice, EcoWatch said.

The world’s longest skating rink is only allowed to open when there is a minimum of 12 inches of ice on the canal, the NCC said earlier, as Reuters reported. This means there needs to have been 10 to 14 days in a row of temperatures from minus four to minus 14 degrees Fahrenheit.

A risk assessment due to climate change was commissioned by the Standards Council of Canada and the NCC to gauge how the Rideau Skateway is affected by climate change.

The skating rink’s second season of 1971-72 was its longest on record at 95 days, according to the NCC, while an average season is 50 days.

“[T]he NCC should prepare for seasons with less than 40 days of skating approximately 50% of the time” under a moderate emissions scenario, the risk assessment said, as reported by Reuters.