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For Nick Flanigan, skating outdoors was something that he loved while growing up in Calgary.
But it was difficult to keep tabs on conditions at his favourite outdoor rinks. That eventually led to the creation of website ODR Atlas last year.
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“I first wanted to compile as much as I could all the best skating locations across Canada, as people are always happy to share those. And so even if you’re travelling, you can go and find it,” Flanigan said in an interview.
“But then the next layer of that was, well, could we build a bit of an algorithm to tell you not only where the best rinks are, but what the condition, or likely condition of those rinks are at any given moment.”
It’s information that’s particularly relevant amid a January warm spell in the Prairies. The City of Regina says crews are working to manage the loss of ice, but it can’t flood any ice surfaces until the temperature drops back below -5 C.
Moose Jaw has had to close several of its outdoor rinks, due to the ice becoming soft.
In addition to listing outdoor rinks and rating them based on amenities, Flanigan’s site uses an algorithm he designed to estimate ice conditions.
“So the first piece of data is, how is the weather currently?” he explained. “Is it windy, snowy, warm, cold, frigid — whatever the conditions are as of this moment.
“And then we mix that with a little bit of historical data from the last three days. So that way we know, has there been a big melt in the last three days? Has there been a large accumulation of snow or rain or anything like that?”
As of Tuesday afternoon, for example, ice conditions for Regina’s rinks were rated at 57 — “fair ice, windy.” In Saskatoon, it was slightly better, at 62: “Fair ice, soft.”
The site provides data for 840 rinks across Canada in nearly 400 communities.
Flanigan said skating outdoors goes beyond keeping fit and getting outside during the darkness of winter.
“It’s where you see kids get to practice some of their first moves. It’s where you see dads taking their little ones. It’s where you see teenagers hanging out on a Friday night playing a little bit of stick and puck,” he said.
“And so I think there is a little bit of just that Canadiana that goes into outdoor rinks, and there’s a beautiful part of our winter culture here.”
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