For a while this winter, it was looking rather grim for the acclaimed New Hampshire ice castles. This year's persistent warm temperatures threatened to keep the castles closed until next winter. Construction on the castles was put on hold earlier this month, with some wondering if the build would pick back up at all this season. Eventually winter started to show up and stick around, and construction resumed.
The castles were originally expected to open last week, which is already later than they opened last winter. That opening had to be delayed to this week, and the castles are ready for visitors. The grand opening for 2023 came today, January 27. Ice castles CEO Kyle Standifird summed up the situation this year perfectly, saying:
"Mother Nature has thrown us a few challenges this season, which delayed our opening. While winter doesn’t always come on our schedule, it always comes eventually."
Yes, winter does always show up eventually. On January 11, I published an article entitled "Where's Winter?" In this article I wrote about how warm the start of winter had been, but I mentioned how winter will show up at some point, saying:
"Some more good news for winter lovers: a jet stream pattern flip could occur toward the end of this month. This flip would end the train of storms currently hitting the beleaguered California while allowing cold air to enter the northeast...Just because the overall temp pattern is well above average, that does not mean that every day will be mild. It's New England. In even the warmest of patterns in January, cold will sneak in some way or another on some days."
That pattern change did occur, that's what led to the sudden train of storms that marched across New England over the last two weeks. This has also allowed colder air to filter into the region, and that cold air will continue to drop into New England. Next week will feature some really cold temperatures. Next weekend could very well end up being the coldest weekend of the 2022-2023 winter.
For those that may not know exactly what the ice castles are, they are massive, majestic castles built entirely out of ice. At the castles, you will see caves, tunnels, crawl spaces and fountains. These are particularly beautiful at night, as the castle is lit up with all different colors. On top of the castles, you will also find a snow tubing hill, forest walk and horse drawn sleigh rides. Also, new for this year, there will be an ice sculpture garden and a bar made entirely of ice, called the "Polar Pub".
The New Hampshire ice castles is one of five locations across the United States. The others are in New York, Wisconsin, Minnesota and Utah.