Ice rinks still closed

DE PERE - While the milder weather is nice for going for a walk, it's not as good for typical wintertime activities.

There are a lot of outdoor ice skating rinks in the Green Bay area. Up until this most recent warm up, they had actually been doing pretty well. That's no longer the case.

City crews in De Pere and Green Bay started flooding the rinks last week and were getting pretty close to finishing some of them.

The chilly start to the new year was a promising sign.

But with this recent warm weather the work has halted. And much of the progress the crews made is being undone.
    
But Green Bay Parks Department officials say as long as the weather cooperates it shouldn't take too long to get the rinks back on track.

“Well if it's four days of warm weather, that sets us back four days. If the weather forecasts hold true, next week it looks like it's going to be cold again. And if we can get a full week of ice building next week, we should be looking pretty good for that weekend,” said Keith Wilhelm, Green Bay Parks Department.

For crews to get good ice to form, they need overnight lows to be in the single digits to teens and temperatures during the day to stay below freezing
    
As little sunshine as possible is also preferable.
    
Temperatures also can't be too cold, though, because the equipment they use to flood the rinks will start to freeze up when temperatures drop below zero.
    
So over the next seven days of our forecast period, we're going to see another four days where it looks like we will continue to lose ice, or at least no be able to make any.
    
However, the next three days after that and potentially beyond look promising for some prime ice making weather.