Partially frozen, HUGe Snowstorm? Liner in corners?

[bjlasota]

So I got my rink up this Holiday season and due to the cold weather rolling in, decided to flood. I flooded a few nights ago and I have about a 1/2"-3/4" layer of ice. It's still freezing but last night we got hammered with about 6" of snow. Now for your CA and upper north folk, 6" is a lot for SW Michigan. They're calling for another foot or so in the next 36 hours.

My concern is that the snow is gathering on the thin layer of ice and going to ruin it. The ice being so thin, I can't get on and shovel it off. My rink is about 1500 sq.ft. so I can't really easily reach the center ice. Should I be worried about this snow or should I just get on and shovel it when I can? Would spraying water on the snow make things better/worse?

I noticed that the ice was good and frozen in the mornings, but in the middle of the day, around the walls thaws out a bit and the snow starts to melt into the ice. Don't want my rink to be a waste.

Lastly and kinda off topic, but as you can see in my pictures, my liner clumps up in the corners. Any thoughts on what to do with it? Fold it down?

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[Joe]

If you can't walk on it, best you can really do is leave it alone and let it freeze. I try to not fill when snow is forecast, but sometimes it happens (happened to me my first year). The bummer is that the snow will insulate the water/ice and it'll freeze slower, and if the forecast is hovering around the 30's (or warmer) over the next week or two, you may want to borrow/buy a roof rake and try to pull the snow off. It's hard work but I've done it, and it gets the snow off the water/ice and exposes it to the cold air.

[bjlasota]

Thanks for the reply. I let it be over this past week and I think it's doing ok. It's not stopped snowing and we've gotten about a foot, but I think the snow is melting into the ice. During the day its in the lower 20's and the ice is a hard slush. At night, it gets down into the lower teens/upper singles and it's a frozen slush. Can't push through it. We're still supposed to get another 6 inches or so in the next day, then this Saturday it's supposed to get up to 33. Next Monday and Tuesday it'll be dropping below 0 overnight and hovering around 5 or 6 during the day. If it's not good and frozen by this weekend, I'm hoping Monday and Tuesday next week help me out a lot. Still can't walk on it, but it is freezing at night now. The snow's not collecting on the rink, so I'm assuming it's melting into it.

[Joe]

Yeah, with temps like that coming early next week, I'd leave it be even if the snow starts to accumulate on top. Hopefully by Tuesday next week you can walk on it and start to shovel/flood/whatever.

[bjlasota]

It got down to about 4 last night from 11pm through 6am this morning. I scraped it using a roof rake and noticed a few spots where the snow had frozen. It was hard to chunk it off with the roof rake, but once I can stand on it, I think my scraping shovel will take off that frozen snow. I also noticed on my low end of my yard, that my boards are starting to bow out. I think everything is good and frozen except for the extreme corners. Going to look into some extra support tonight. Right now on the low end of my yard, I have a stake every 6" and it is still bowing.

[Joe]

Can you post a pic of the bowing boards?

[bjlasota]

Later this evening. At work right now.

[bjlasota]

So attached is a picture that doesn't really show what I'm seeing in person. Line 1 points to the length of board that I'm noticing the bow. It's as if the water is pushing the boards out towards the right from the top. Line 2 points to the ground area where the stakes enter the ground, and have not moved. I've tried to simulate this on the picture and drawing to the right of the photo.

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Also, in the picture below, each corner is attached by the same metal brackets holding the lengths together, but bent at a 90 degree angle. There is no separation in any of the corners, making me think that maybe it's just an illusion. This picture is of my deepest end. As I started filling, I knew it was my deep end, but got concerned and started adding supports all over this corner just to make sure I had enough support. Wife took these, maybe I can get a better picture when I get home from work.

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[bjlasota]

So here's what I ran into tonight and looking for some advice on getting the majority of the ice surface cleaned up and ready for skating. I skated around tonight a bit, but have a few un-even spots. It's good and frozen solid tonight at 17 degrees F. Looking for some advice on what to do from here to even out the surfaces. My assumption is that these spots were all created from the massive snowstorm we got just shortly after I flooded my rink last week. So below are a couple pictures of what I found tonight. I used a sharp bladed shovel to chip away most of it, then started running into solid ice. Most of what was there was a soft frozen slush with solid ice under. If you have questions on the pics, let me know. Weather for my area for the next 10 days is:
Saturday - 32F - Snowstorm warning for evening through Monday
Sunday - 24 F - 3-5 inches snow expected
Monday - 3F - 60% chance snow
Tuesday - 6F - 60% chance snow
Wednesday - 21F
Thursday - 31F
Friday - 30F
Saturday - 33F
Sunday - 31F

All temps are mid day and the only day that has any sun in the forecast is the last Sunday. I also have about 6" on my high end available to add water. The heights of these sections isn't anymore than maybe 1/4". There was also a section very close to the middle of the ice that was a soft frozen slush. I skated over it and it broke up about 1" down in a small circle. My assumption again is that most of the current ice I skated on was snow at one point, and froze good, but a few locations didn't freeze good or mix well with the water that was on my rink at the time of the snowstorm.

[bjlasota]

So would flooding the whole thing even again be my answer? If so, when based on my weather for the next 10 days would be the best time? IS there something else I'm supposed to do to fix these spots?