By Michael Monastyrskyj

This morning I went to Dufferin Grove park and took some pictures of guys playing hockey. The outdoor rink at Dufferin has been open since last Sunday. It was supposed to open a week ago Saturday along with thirteen other outdoor rinks but there were some problems.

However, now that Dufferin is up and running, the rink is very busy especially in the evening. (You can read more about Dufferin Grove in a story that appeared in last Saturday’s Star: The power of soup, skates and simplicity.)

Altogether The City of Toronto operates 49 outdoor rinks with artificial ice. There is a fiftieth outdoor rink at Harbourfront which is not run by the City.

Some people are the under impression that the outdoor rinks they see in city parks have natural ice that melts in warm weather.

That’s not true.

The 49 rinks have compressors that make the ice. You can’t run the outdoor rinks in summer obviously, but in fall and winter the rinks still have ice even on relatively warm days. (There are some natural ice rinks in the city, but they aren’t among the 49 that I’m talking about here.)

More important than the temperature is the angle of the sun.

Even when the temperature is the same, it’s easier to make ice in autumn when the angle of the sun is low than it is in spring when the angle of the sun is high.

CELOS has been pushing the City to open Toronto’s rinks earlier in the season and that’s the reason Dufferin opened early this year.

Cross posted from Michael’s Bloor-Lansdowne Blog with permission.