Outdoor ice rinks across southeastern Manitoba are closing as we slowly emerge from a long cold winter.

Russ Dyck is the Head of Steinbach Parks and Recreation. He says this winter was very good for the outdoor rinks in town as temperatures have remained cold enough for the rinks to stay open since late November.

"We had a longer season than normal with our outdoor rinks particularly the one at the arena. We were open for 104 days this year which is the longest since we have been keeping those numbers in the last 20 years. I am sure there were some longer winters way back when but in the last 20 this has been our longest in terms of days that we were open."

Dyck says the outdoor rink at the T. G. Smith Centre opened on November 29th and only closed last Wednesday, March 13th.

"Also this year, there were no closed dates which sometimes we do have some days during the winter that it warms up a bit too much and it gets soft and we lock it up for the odd day here or there so we didn't have any of those this year either so that was good."

Dyck says, as usual, the rink was a popular hangout spot for both kids and adults all winter long.