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Observed decreases in the Canadian outdoor skating season due to recent winter warming

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Observed decreases in the Canadian outdoor skating season due to recent winter warming

Damyanov, Nikolay N, Matthews, H. Damon and Mysak, Lawrence A (2012) Observed decreases in the Canadian outdoor skating season due to recent winter warming. Environmental Research Letters, 7 (1). 014028. ISSN 1748-9326

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/7/1/014028

Abstract

Global warming has the potential to negatively affect one of Canada's primary sources of winter recreation: hockey and ice skating on outdoor rinks. Observed changes in winter temperatures in Canada suggest changes in the meteorological conditions required to support the creation and maintenance of outdoor skating rinks; while there have been observed increases in the ice-free period of several natural water bodies, there has been no study of potential trends in the duration of the season supporting the construction of outdoor skating rinks. Here we show that the outdoor skating season (OSS) in Canada has significantly shortened in many regions of the country as a result of changing climate conditions. We first established a meteorological criterion for the beginning, and a proxy for the length of the OSS. We extracted this information from daily maximum temperature observations from 1951 to 2005, and tested it for significant changes over time due to global warming as well as due to changes in patterns of large-scale natural climate variability. We found that many locations have seen a statistically significant decrease in the OSS length, particularly in Southwest and Central Canada. This suggests that future global warming has the potential to significantly compromise the viability of outdoor skating in Canada.

Divisions:Concordia University > Faculty of Arts and Science > Geography, Planning and Environment
Item Type:Article
Refereed:Yes
Authors:Damyanov, Nikolay N and Matthews, H. Damon and Mysak, Lawrence A
Journal or Publication:Environmental Research Letters
Date:2012
Funders:
  • Concordia Open Access Author Fund
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):10.1088/1748-9326/7/1/014028
Keywords:global warming, impacts, outdoor hockey, skating rinks
ID Code:974009
Deposited By: ANDREA MURRAY
Deposited On:07 May 2012 19:11
Last Modified:18 Jan 2018 17:37
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