For the first time since it opened in 1971, the Rideau Canal Skateway will not open this winter.

The National Capital Commission says the news is disappointing but the weather just did not co-operate.

”This winter’s higher-than-average temperatures, snow and rain … contributed to a thin and porous ice surface,” the NCC tweeted.

”The latest ice tests show that the ice surface remains unsafe.  Any further efforts are unlikely to yield a different result.”

Until now the shortest skating season was 2016, when the 7.8-kilometre long Skateway was open for only 18-days.

Last winter it opened in mid-January  and the season lasted 41-days.

According to a long-term risk assessment commissioned by the NCC, the warmer weather has shortened the average skating season by about four-days per-decade.

That report says February starts could become the norm on the UNESCO World Heritage site, while skating seasons of 40-days or more will become the exception by 2050.