Some northern areas cold enough to ice skate on Boxing Day
In the north of the Netherlands, people laced up their skates on Boxing day and headed out on the ice. After the south of the Netherlands saw a few flakes of snow on Christmas, the north was cold enough on Sunday to allow winter sport lovers to skate on ice.
The first marathon on natural ice in Noordlaren will kick off at 7 p.m. on Sunday. Dozens of people helped prepare the ice for the event on Sunday during the day. Due to coronavirus measures, the public is not allowed at the event.
In Drenthe, Friesland and Groningen, the ice was three to five centimeters thick thanks to temperatures around minus seven degrees Celsius at night.
In Drenthe, volunteers worked until 3 a.m. on Sunday despite a temperature feel of minus 13 degrees to get the ice ready for the 9 a.m. opening time. There was space for up to 175 people at once on the rink. The rink closed has to close at 5 p.m. due to coroanvirus restrictions.
Tomorrow the ice will likely have melted again with temperatures up to ten degrees.
