Friday’s 45-degree forecast should not threaten the recently completed ice palace. In fact, the weather conditions are about as good as they could be, organizers said.
The Winter Carnival ice palace was lit up for the first time Thursday night as Winter Carnival festivities got underway. It was built using 4,000 blocks of ice and towers 70 feet above Rice Park in downtown St. Paul.
While warm weather and ice usually don’t mix, it should help solidify the ice palace, notes Joe Gallagher, the Ecolab Ice Palace project manager. After temperatures in the 40s today, the high is expected to sink to 32 degrees Saturday and into the teens early next week.
“Really what the warm weather does is it melts the ice between the grooves. The freezing … will make the individual blocks become one,” Gallagher said. “The long-term forecast could not be any better for an ice palace. It’s going to be amazing.”
It would take 60-degree weather or an extended period of temperatures in the mid 40s for the ice palace to be at risk, Gallagher said. Direct sunlight can also pose a threat — and caused the palace to be taken down in 2004 — but this year’s palace is well shaded.
“A week from now, we’ll be thinking more about putting more layers on than taking layers off,” Gallagher said.
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