The return to cold weather couldn’t have come at a better time for the Cochrane Winter Carnival, as it approaches its second and final weekend.
Town of Cochrane recreation supervisor Chantal Joanis says flooding on the surface of Lake Commando has been happening at night, to build up enough ice to make it safe for the Polar Bear Dip and its change shack and sauna.
If the warm weather had continued, changes would have had to be made to all on-ice activities.
“The carnival would have still happened,” Joanis insists. “We would have had to find safer locations, because we think of safety first, all the time.”
As it stands, everything is a go – except maybe Saturday’s carnival parade, which doesn’t have any entries yet.
The weather forecast for the second and final weekend of the carnival is for temperatures between minus-12 and minus-15. Joanis calls that “actually mild”.
“Sometimes we’ve seen carnival with minus-40,” she recalls. “So let’s come out and enjoy the sun and enjoy the winter.”
The entire schedule is on the carnival’s Facebook page, and in the audio link below.