With the help from mother nature, outdoor rinks in Steinbach could be ready earlier than usual.

Russ Dyck, Head of Parks and Recreation for the City, says they began making ice on the outdoor rink at the T.G. Smith Centre last week and will start on the one at the library, as well as three neighbourhood rinks, very shortly.

"We should be able to be skating on the one at the arena in the next couple weeks I would imagine as long as the weather stays cool enough," says Dyck.

He adds the fact that we do not have much snow yet, does make the process slower but says as long as temperatures remain below zero, they are still able to work on it.

"Ideal ice building weather is like minus 30 to get that good thick base going but for a finish coat it’s nice to be a little bit warmer than that," Dyck explains. "The snow base definitely helps with speeding up the process, you get a little more volume of ice quicker with snow. If you don’t have snow, you have to rely just on the water to freeze but if you can kind of slush in the edges and the base a bit with snow, that does speed up the initial process.

Dyck says their goal is usually to have neighbourhood rinks done by Christmas but with the cooler weather settling in earlier this year, he hopes to have them ready by mid-December.