If you didn’t get in your annual bout of outdoor ice-skating after last weekend’s biting cold, you might have missed your chance.
On Thursday, Concord Parks and Rec announced that it was closing the ponds at White Park and Beaver Meadow Golf Course and “based on the much warmer-than-normal weather forecast, it is unlikely they will open again.”
The news is particularly painful because outdoor skating has been only intermittently available due to a warm winter. We just finished what was the warmest January on record for every New England state except New Hampshire, where it was in the top five.
And now, after the brief Arctic blast that broke cold-temperature records last weekend, we’re turning to unseasonably balmy weather. The National Weather Services says all of New England except for northern Maine will have higher than usual temperatures through at least mid February.
The warm winter has limited outdoor skating and snow sports, most notably causing Concord’s Black Ice pond hockey tournament to reluctantly decide to move inside. It will be held in Everett Arena in March.
The warm weather forced last weekend’s Pond Hockey Classic to move from Meredith Bay on Lake Winnipesaukee to a nearby lake.
New Hampshire Fish and Game is advising extreme caution when heading out onto ice anywhere in the state because the erratic weather has kept it from developing as much thickness as might be expected.