With winter officially underway, the City of Swift Current has officially opened their outdoors rinks.

All five outdoor rinks were opened on Wednesday and will operate on a holiday schedule from December 22nd until January 3rd.

Doug Westergaard, Rink Supervisor for the North Hill Rink said the recent cold snap the city received was the perfect weather for the preparation of rinks.

"Between minus 10 and 15 is a real nice temperature to flood. The water seems to flow nicely across the rink and we don't get ripples," he said. "We do have issues with being an outdoor rink if it's snowing we can't flood, if it's blowing snow we can't flood if it's way too windy we can't flood because it blows the water across the ice and then we get ripples."

Parks Superintendent for the City of Swift Current Bashar Sayyed said the city really enjoys their time on the outdoor rinks.

"It's no secret that this is a hockeytown and they're having great fun (on the rinks)," he said. "It pays off when you see the number of the general public that enjoys the outdoor ice rinks. They're playing hockey, I've seen lots of families train their kids (on the rinks we make)."

The five different locations for the rinks are Westside (3rd Avenue Northwest & Herbert Street), Highland (Maxwell Drive & Reid Crescent), Southside (3rd Avenue Southeast & McIntosh Street East), North Hill (4th Avenue Northeast & Ashford Street), and Riverdene (Riverdene Park Drive & 13th Avenue Northeast).

All five locations have two ice surfaces; one large enclosed surface and one smaller surface. The ice surfaces are open until 9 p.m. equipped with flood lights so you can enjoy an evening skate.

Visit www.swiftcurrent.ca/play for hours of operation and more details.