Temperatures in Thunder Bay didn’t hit the projected high of 17 C on Wednesday, but it was warm enough to convince residents to cut their winter hibernation short.
Baldino Aiello, 12, shed his coat and grabbed three of his buddies for an old-fashioned game of Whitney Street road hockey, dressed in little more than jeans and a thin cotton T-shirt.
The timing for spring’s early arrival was bang on, Baldino said, taking a short break from the game.
“The weather’s fantastic because it’s March Break and God wants us to have fun,” he said.
The mercury hit an unseasonably high of 11 C, with forecasters from the Weather Network suggesting a 20 C day in March could become reality as early as Saturday. Long-range forecasts indicate temperatures will stay well above normal for at least the next couple of weeks.
That suits Baldino just fine, though it did force him and his friends to make a slight change in the usual plan.
“Yeah, normally we’d be at the outdoor rinks having a little scrub game,” he said.
The city has shut down its outdoor facilities, the final casualty coming Wednesday morning when the newly installed ice pad at Marina Park was closed, the ice quickly turning into a soupy quagmire.
Kyle Barbeau, the goaltender in the epic contest, is not a huge fan of cold weather and welcomed the sun’s warming rays with open arms.
“You can just take off your jacket and play around,” he said.
Danny Ashe grabbed a shovel and headed to Marina Park, where he and a few buddies spent the afternoon clearing the last of the ice and snow off the skateboard park, anxious to get a head start on the season.
It’s not the first time they’ve tried to get going, though the recent snow storm curtailed those plans.
“The snow kind of wrecked it, but here we are now. It’s nice, we’ve got the whole skate park almost shoveled off,” he said.
“It’s really, really nice. This whole winter’s been good. We didn’t really see any -40 weather,” he added, glad to be outside.
“It’s a great place to come hang out and get to know a lot of people. I’ve met a lot of friends here the last two years the park has been here.”
Drew Sainsbury, who had his bike out doing tricks at the skate park, called it an amazing day.
“We can start riding earlier, everyone loves it. I can start learning more stuff, since the season’s beginning earlier.
“I hate snow. I just want to bike and basically here, that’s what everybody wants.”
