27th winter in a row without the Elfstedentocht

Once again this winter, it was not cold enough to host the Elfstedentocht. This makes it the 27th winter in a row without the legendary skating tour. A record, reported weather service Weeronline. The last Elfstedentocht took place on January 4, 1997.

The Elfstedentocht is a long-distance tour skating event through Friesland which starts and ends at Leeuwarden and passes eleven historical cities in the province. It is held at most once a year, and only if the natural ice along the entire route is thick enough to skate on safely. The event usually attracts thousands of participants and hundreds of thousands of spectators.

To this day, it has been more than 9,900 days since the last Elfstedentocht took place, Weeronline wrote. The previous record-long period without an Elfstedentocht lasted from January 18, 1963, to February 21, 1985, after which 21 winters ended without an Elfstedentocht. At that time, there were even two winters in a row in which the ice was thick enough to organize the tour.

According to the weather service, the question is whether there will ever be another Elfstedentocht. Due to climate change, the winters in the Netherlands are becoming increasingly warmer and the chances of the ''Tour of all Tours” are getting increasingly smaller. Since the 1960s, the average winter temperature has risen by up to 2 degrees. The current winter has also been mild so far, and it doesn't look like this will change in the coming weeks.

Whether there will ever be a "Tour of all Tours" again is unclear. According to Weeronline, a long period of frost is needed to create a stable ice surface on which you can skate. Accordingly, optimal weather conditions, such as sufficient snowfall and wind, are needed during this period.

However, it was possible to skate for a few days at the beginning of January. Then it froze for a short time.