Mother Nature Not Always Willing to Attend Major Events
Prince George, B.C. – Prince George has not seen a ‘typical’ winter for three years now, and that has had an impact on some events the City has wanted to host.
Just last weekend, the North American Biathlon Championships announced the early March event had to be moved to Canmore Alberta because of a lack of snow at the Otway Nordic Centre which was supposed to host the event.
That move was a significant blow for not only the Otway Nordic Centre, but the City of Prince George as well, as it means all economic benefits of hosting more than 250 athletes, coaches and visitors has been lost.
It is not the first major event that’s had to make some last minute changes. During the 2015 Canada Winter Games, speed skating had to be moved to Fort St. John because the conditions at the ice oval in Prince George had deteriorated due to mild weather.
Then there was the Downtown Winter Carnival, held on the 12th of this month. The lack of snow meant the snow carving event had to become an ice carving event, and the ice was brought in from Ness Lake. Mother Nature did decide to show up two days before the Carnival, dumping a significant amount of snow on the City, but ‘plan B’ had already been put into motion.
Mayor Lyn Hall says regardless of what Mother Nature does, or doesn’t do, as the case may be, the City should continue trying to land some major events “I agree, there’s no question we are seeing a difference in our winters. The fluctuations in weather, the fluctuations in snowfall, the freeze thaw cycles, rain when we’ve never seen that before in this area, what I think we need to start to take a look at is the (ice) oval. I know that team is really pursuing an artificial ice surface, and I think we need to start thinking in those kinds of ways, but I don’t think we stop trying to go after these events.”
Mayor Hall says the focus will continue to be on games that are year round “We can do that with the BC Seniors Games, we can do that with the Summer Games, we can do that for BC Games, both winter and summer. We just need to get a variety of games opportunities and go after them, whether its winter or summer, and I would like to see us take a look at more Provincial or National summer games as well. I think that’s a piece we need to go after, there’s a balance there, but we don’t stop going after the winter events, but we do have to have a plan B in place. The weather is changing , and we have to adapt.”
The Ice Oval Society has already stared fundraising for an artificial ice plant, and the Mayor expects the society will be back before Council sometime this year to have the project added as a funded item as a capital project in the future. In the meantime, Mayor Hall says the City will keep making bids to host events “I don’t want us to stop going after these events. We continue to go after, winter, summer, year round games, whatever they might be, we will continue to have our winter carnivals, and I think we need to be prepared to adapt to the changing weather conditions and how they might impact a particular event and what is ‘plan B'”.
Comments
That’s great we have a mayor who is an expert on global warming and weather patterns.
If you read it again, think you’ll see he is saying, it is what it is, we just have to work around it.
If the long range forecast can be believed we are in for another bout of winter in early March. Lots of snow and colder than usual temperatures are the forecast.
I miss cold winters and hot summers.
We have fished Dragon lake a few Decembers in the past, winters here are always a flash of this and a flash of that. A week of cold, a day or two of heavy snow and a thaw. If were no warm days in winter we would not have ever built a snowman in December or January or had a sleigh ride. It is like planing a camping trip, sometimes you nail it perfect but most of the time it is ok and the odd time a disaster
I read through the entire article, and not once did it mention global warming / climate change. Mayor Lyn Hall is correct about the changing weather patterns, this is just one of the signs of global warming.
Get used to this folks, because the winters will never be the same again, not in this area, not in any area of the world.
Most everyone knows about the annual Iditarod Dog Race up in Alaska, well last year they had such a warm winter they had to ship in snow to the start of the race in Fairbanks, Alaska.
Apparently, this is the third year in a row the lack of snow has disrupted the Iditarod. In 2014, low levels of snow on parts of the trail caused injuries to mushers. Last year, the low levels caused the race to move 225 miles north to Fairbanks. I guess Fairbanks, Alaska is not far enough north now… what’s next the North Pole?
If is happening in Fairbanks, Alaska… who should be surprised it is happening in Prince George?
Though off topic, there’s interesting dynamics to this debate. There’s about 7 billion people in world. The largest contributors to global warming are China and India as they crank out consumer products for the rest of the world. There are about 5 billion people who’d like electricity just like we have, but they don’t have access to hydro electric, so if they were to get electricity will likely go with coal since it’s the cheapest and most reliable. How do we tell them as we live in comfort that they can’t have electricity because it will make climate change worse? And they certainly can’t have the consumer goods that we have because that’ll cause even more problems. There’s massive inequality in the world, and if climate change is true, it is structural. It can never be fixed if civilization is to survive as it currently is.
“There are about 5 billion people who’d like electricity just like we have, but they don’t have access to hydro electric…” Actually, yes they do have access to clean electricity, the sun shines and the wind blows everywhere on this planet. We just need to make sure these places have the technology to convert solar and wind energy into electricity.
It is possible, and we are moving towards that goal, no matter how much the fossil fuel industry is trying to keep us from getting there. Their very existence depends on our continued dependence on their planet killing fuel products, why do you think they are investing so much of their money into our Federal and Provincial government through lobbying efforts and donations to our political parties?
Yes they have a led light in their soccer ball. When producing mass amounts of electricity for mass consumption solar and wind are the most expensive. Kimberly just put in a solar site, with free land and only paying for 40 percent of the project out of city funds they managed a 10 percent profit on the energy sold at IPP prices, not third world rock bottom prices. If they paid the entire 100 percent of the project they would have lost their shirts, that is how profitable solar is right now.
For an island in the middle of nowhere it may be profitable, but pretty much anywhere else it is only alive thanks to Trudeau pumping out the renewable rebates from taxpayer funds
slinky, you continue to post comments that you seem to have convinced yourself remain true. Your statement; “When producing mass amounts of electricity for mass consumption solar and wind are the most expensive.” while this statement may have been true at one time, is no longer the case today!
“Renewables are robustly entering the era of undercutting” energy made by fossil fuels, Bloomberg New Energy Finance chairman Michael Liebreich wrote this week.
“This is great news for developing nations, which do not generally have the kind of infrastructure that developed countries have dedicated to fossil fuels already in place. As they build their energy infrastructure, it will make sense to go with cheaper, renewable options, more so than it does for a country like the United States to abandon our formidable fossil-fuel based infrastructure.”
ht tp://www.popularmechanics.com/science/green-tech/a24357/solar-power-cheapest-energy/
Technological advances are changing the efficiency of alternative energy sources so fast, that what would have been true 2 years ago, is no longer the case today… try and keep up slinky.
Ski and Slinky thanks for that.
Never really, never wow. Hows your mining claims coming along?
The event moved to the Kootenays did it not? What no AGW down there only here?
Hey hit 70 below in Siberia. Areas of California getting snow 200% of normal and it was predicted they would soon not see snow again.
NOAA caught playing with numbers, The Mail on Sunday today reveals astonishing evidence that the organisation that is the world’s leading source of climate data rushed to publish a landmark paper that exaggerated global warming and was timed to influence the historic Paris Agreement on climate change.
ht tps://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/02/04/bombshell-noaa-whistleblower-says-karl-et-al-pausebuster-paper-was-hyped-broke-procedures/
ht tps://wattsupwiththat.com/2017/02/20/fresh-congressional-probe-into-flawed-karl-pausebuster-scandal/
You mean weather changes, and is unpredictable? Fascinating. Who would have guessed? 2 years ago the Arctic is sheet was at it’s largest in decades. The snowpack is at 110% in the Sierra Nevada. The drought is over in LA.
People want to pick and choose their weather data, the same way they pick their refugee stats.. to serve their own agenda.
No BH, last year restart was in Willow not Fairbanks
Anchorage to the airport is always the ceremonial start then they fly north.
I see on the long range forecast for PG is 52 centimeters of snow in the next 14 days. Is this not enough to hold a cross country ski event??? I feel that the cancellation of this event was made prematurely.
How can this be? Doesn’t mother nature know we have a carbon tax?
Lol
CAREFUL — Might get too Cold or Too Much Snow and they will Move event Indoor or Cancel it.
So a climate changing / global warming denying Donald Trump gets elected as President of United States and what changes? The Answer is absolutely nothing, if you are the US Military… and it just doesn’t matter if the The Donald is now it’s Chief Commanding Officer.
“Despite political gridlock over global warming, the Pentagon is pushing ahead with plans to protect its assets from sea-level rise and other impacts.”
ht tp://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/02/pentagon-fights-climate-change-sea-level-rise-defense-department-military/
News flash, just because the rest of you don’t believe in global warming, does not mean the rest of the world will stop taking action to mitigate the reality of global warming. Fortunately for the rest of the world, it does not live in caves postulating on whether a fact like global warming exist.
BH I will type slowly for you, it’s about AGW/CAGW. You seem to be the one denying climate change or warming unless caused by man. It has been recently shown as suspected all along NOAA the main source of temperature data has been shown to adjust data to overstate warming. Again slowly there is no science proving man is affecting climate with c02, how much, how little if any at all. Thirty years and more of studying, billions spent, no proof. Carbon tax based on nothing, the biggest tax scam by this government ever. Don’t believe me about no proof then show it.
NOAA is in some politishuns pockets. Don’t worry, I typed slowly too. LOL!
yo seamutt…..
“NOAA Scientists Falsely Accused of Manipulating Climate Change Data”
“A tabloid used testimony from a single scientist to paint an excruciatingly technical matter as a world wide conspiracy”
If you would like to read a total debunking of your stories, go to Snopes.com
Smiles, really, so sad. It’s not just one scientist there has been many but they get threatened and muzzled. There are many scientists that keep their mouths shut for fear of loosing their careers. Look at what happened to Soon and Judith Currie. Wonder how many scientist up the hill here keep thief mouths shut for fear of criticizing the AGW/CAGW mantra. Could be career ending.
It is a good idea to have more events happening in town that is free to the general public
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