When Beijing was bidding for the 2008 Olympic Games, it proposed an end-of-July dateline. After closer examination of the city's weather patterns, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) agreed to postpone the event to August 8-24.

"Relevant weather data indicate August should be a good season to hold the Olympics," said Jiang Xiaoyu, Executive Vice President of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 2008 Olympic Games (BOCOG).

According to Jiang, departments have analyzed rainfall trends of each August 8 over the past 50, 30 and 10 years. In general, there is a 30-40 percent chance of rain on that particular date. For the last decade, however, no rain fell in Beijing on August 8.

Jiang also said that relevant departments are trying to find the most effective measures to minimize the impact of inclement weather on Beijing's Olympic Games.

Yet, August is known as the high-water season in Beijing. And when it does rain, it comes down in buckets, contributing 40-50 percent of the city's annual total rainfall. August is also a month of changeable weather, with high temperatures, high humidity and frequent thunderstorms. Obviously, rainfall will exert a negative impact on outdoor sports events and the performance of the athletes. Additionally, thunderstorms will affect the transmission of TV programs, or even cause security incidents. "In this sense, excellent weather services and accurate weather forecasts are among the key factors to ensure the success of the Games," said Wang Yingchun, Director of the CMA (China Meteorological Administration) of the Beijing Institute of Urban Meteorology.

Extensive weather service

Olympic weather services will cover not only Beijing, but also Qingdao in east China's Shandong Province, which will host the Olympic sailing events, Hong Kong, which will hold the Olympic equestrian competition, Tianjin, Qinhuangdao, Shenyang and Shanghai, which will stage football matches, and also the cities that are to participate in Olympic torch relays.

It is suggested by weather institutions that sports events should be arranged in accordance with the weather conditions so as to ensure the smooth running of the games.

"The Olympic weather service poses great challenges for weather institutions," admitted Professor Li Huang, head of the Olympic weather service leading group. Despite the difficulties, relevant departments have been pooling efforts to provide accurate detailed weather forecasts for each urban district, major streets and all competitive venues during the games.

For this purpose, a weather surveying network is gradually being set up, equipped with high-performance computer processors. At the same time, experiments on artificial hail prevention and artificial rain dispersal are being carried out. "By that time, we'll be able to provide forecasts that can tell weather changes in places every km apart during a period of every 30 minutes," said Wang of the CMA. "People both at home and abroad will have access to sufficient information on weather conditions for a certain place at a certain time through various media channels."

On July 1, 2003, the BOCOG official website began to issue weather information about Beijing and Qingdao, and a weather database for the Olympic weather service has been established. On August 8, 2005, the Beijing Metrological Administration launched the Beijing Olympic Weather Service website. It will operate until the closure of the games, providing Olympic weather services, information on meteorological technologies, weather conditions during certain competitions and warning against weather disasters.

Practice makes perfect

In July 2006, a simulation of a poisonous substance leakage incident was organized by the Beijing Meteorological Administration in the Wukesong Cultural and Sports Center—one of the Olympic venues. In the rehearsal, emergency plans for dealing with public incidents were put into action. Officials, including Qin Dahe, Director of the China Meteorological Administration, checked the weather surveying system in the capital and its surrounding areas, and examined weather forecasting and climate prediction facilities, as well as products for forecasting thunderstorms, air quality, ozone depletion potential and ultraviolet ray intensity.

Two rehearsals of the Olympic weather service will be carried out, one this year and the other next year, to train the staff and seek early discovery and solution of potential problems, said Qin Dahe.

Rehearsal exercises for this year are divided into two stages. The first stage, completed in July, was a mock exercise focusing on weather services for torch relays, the opening ceremony, various sports events during the games and public incidents, as well as the test of relevant facilities and technicians. The second stage will be carried out during the three international sports events scheduled between the latter half of August and early September in Qingdao and Beijing.

It is said that during the 2008 Olympic Games, forecasters of the China Meteorolo-gical Administration will use advanced technologies to ensure high-level weather services.

Hi-tech weather detectors

Technological support for Olympic weather services was listed among the country's major scientific and technological development projects several years ago.

"The Olympic weather service system is precise, unique and sophisticated, which helps to provide timely accurate information about weather conditions and disasters during the games," said Zhang Guocai, Director of the CMA Department of Forecasting Service and Disaster Deduction.

In addition, the thunder and lightning monitoring and warning system, developed by the Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, is now in the experimental stage. This system is able to offer Olympic competition venues visual information on the positioning of thunder and lightning and also warning on thunderstorms. The activities of thunder and lightning can be predicted 30-60 minutes before they occur, and theoretically, the error in thunder and lightning positioning won't exceed two meters.

In order to better monitor such possible incidents as the leakage of chemical gas, forest fires and strong sandstorms, the Beijing Meteorological Administration has turned to state-of-the-art computer processors that are suitable for cluster computing and able to deal with a huge amount of weather data around the clock.