Most outdoor rink facilities operated by the city are back up and in full use.

The rainfall and warmer temperatures at the beginning of the week did have an effect on outdoor facilities, especially Queen's Athletic Skating Oval, the Ramsey Lake Skating Path and the outdoor rinks, Shannon Dowling, media relations officer for the city, said.

Most of these facilities were not safe for use on Jan. 23 and 24; however, a quick turnaround with temperatures becoming increasingly colder as the week progressed resulted in the water freezing quickly.

With some additional flooding efforts, both Queen's and the skating path were up and running by the morning of Jan 25. It will be natural for some areas to be a little rough to start until flooding efforts begin to result in smoother surfaces, Dowling said.

There may be some rink locations where ice surfaces are rougher than others and require a little extra TLC, Dowling said, but this would be dependent on if they were used when the surfaces were soft, as well as flooding and maintenance efforts at the onset of the colder evening temperatures this week.

Posted by Arron Pickard