Update, 1:50 p.m.
Parks Superintendent John Howe called back with an update on the ice situation at Mill Pond and there was some impressive progress overnight following the deep freeze.
"We've got a whopping three inches," he said, expressing some surprise at the overnight growth. "That's over an inch in the last 24 hours, strictly because it's been so cold."
Howe said an inch of ice forming is not unheard of, but temperatures typically have to be extremely cold, like the current temperatures the area is experiencing. However, the timing of the freeze's arrival probably won't lend to ice skating this year.
"If we had another three or four days of this kind of cols, I wouldn't be surprised if we saw some skating possible," he said. "But it's supposed to warm up for the weekend, so I'm not entirely optimistic."
Howe said there hasn't been skating for some time since regulations upped the required ice thickness to six inches over the previously required four. He said normally, if the pond was going to hit the level of ice required, it would have been achieved in December, when sunlight was at its most restricted.
Now that the days have started to lengthen again, Howe doesn't see ice skating being very likely this year.
Original Story:
Hey New Canaan, if you were thinking about braving the cold, lacing up the ice skates and heading out to New Canaan's Mill Pond Park, well, make yourself a nice, hot mug of hot cocoa instead and grab a book.
After a reader asked whether the park was open for ice skating, I called Parks Superintendent John Howe to check in and see if residents could head down. He said, despite the frigid temperatures, absolutely not.
"We're not even close," Howe said. "We need six inches of ice to safely allow ice skaters. We have roughly two inches."
Howe said department employees were heading down just this afternoon to get a true reading of progress on the ice today, but so far, there's not enough thickness to allow for any figure-eighting.
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