ANPThe artificial natural ice rink in Winterswijk in 2022
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 20:51
The coming week will be cold and there will be virtually no precipitation. This makes it possible to skate on many natural ice rinks, but skating on ‘real’ natural ice is probably not possible in many places.
There will be light to moderate frost until Wednesday. “Cold has accumulated in the previous period,” says weatherman Marco Verhoef. “You now see that there is a reservoir of cold in the north of Europe. And that is partly coming our way due to the wind.” He is referring, among other things, to the icy temperatures in Sweden. Temperatures below -40 degrees Celsius were measured in some places last week.
Ice clubs are getting ready
In the Netherlands, the cold will remain limited to light or moderate frost next week, but due to the strong wind the perceived temperature will be a few degrees lower. Many ice skating clubs are preparing to open natural ice rinks, such as the Ice Club ‘s-Gravendeel in South Holland and the Doornsche Ice Club in the province of Utrecht.
Verhoef does not yet dare to say whether there will be enough frost everywhere in the Netherlands to be able to skate on these types of sprayed-on ice rinks. He is still unsure about Zeeland in particular, “but I wouldn’t rule it out either.”
Not much ‘real’ natural ice to skate on
The cold period will probably be too short for the formation of ‘real’ natural ice on lakes and rivers that can be skated on, also because there is a lot of wind. Verhoef: “And there is now so much water due to the recent rainfall, so there is also a lot of current.”
The ice will also be unreliable in many cases, for example on floodplains, the weatherman says. “The water in flooded areas, such as floodplains, sinks. Air comes between the ice layer that is there and the water that sinks. That is not stable to skate on.”
He advises people who want to skate to keep an eye on the ice skating clubs. “If they say ‘it’s possible’, then it’s possible. But I wouldn’t just go onto the ice myself.” After next week the frost will probably be over for a while.
Does that mean there will be no cold records this year? Verhoef: “You should never rule that out. There was also a mild run-up in Oslo and there you also have a cold record.” But that requires snow, he says. “Then a kind of blanket is created, so that ground heat no longer has any influence. In addition, a fresh snow layer provides a lot of radiation and therefore also ensures rapid cooling.”
2024-01-07 19:51:43
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