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Wednesday, March 12, 2008
China hopes US meteorologists will help keep Games dry
China will invite meteorologists from the United States and other countries to help it forecast the weather in Beijing during the Summer Olympics, China’s top weatherman said on Tuesday.
Zheng Guoguang, director of the China Meteorological Administration, said he hoped American scientists could help “enhance our ability to forecast (severe weather) accurately,” the state-run China Daily newspaper reported.
Chinese officials are particularly concerned about rain during the Games, which begin on Aug. 8, and will try to keep the city dry by firing chemicals into clouds outside Beijing to induce precipitation before the clouds reach the city.
China’s main Olympic stadium - dubbed the Bird’s Nest for its intricate structure of interlocking beams - does not have a roof and “the local meteorological bureau has been entrusted the job of preventing rain from spoiling the show there,” the China Daily reported.
But asked if China’s meteorologists would succeed in stopping the rain, Zheng conceded that cloud seeding has “little impact on heavy thunderstorms and squalls.”
Maybe American scientists will be able to help.
