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Off-target forecasters promise to boost accuracy by Games
(AP)
Updated: 2007-03-23 17:39
The Olympic weathermen are under pressure to get it right.
Beijing's forecasters this week apologized for wildly inaccurate predictions and promised to improve accuracy by the time the capital hosts the Summer Olympic Games next year, state media said Friday.
For three consecutive days earlier this week, temperatures were much higher than predicted, prompting grumbling and questions about the bureau's ability to produce accurate forecasts for the Games.
Messages posted on Internet forums called the weather bureau a waste of money that was right only about half the time.
"Accurate weather forecasting will play a key role in hosting a successful Olympic Games and we started preparations in 2002 to improve our accuracy," Beijing Meteorological Observatory director Ding Deping was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency.
"However, Beijing's weather is very changeable in July and August and it poses a big challenge for Chinese meteorologists to forecast correctly during the Olympics," Ding added.
The Beijing Youth Daily said forecasters had drafted an "Olympics Weather Plan" for the Games, which are scheduled for August 8-24, a time of year when Beijing's weather tends to be wet, muggy and unpredictable.
Doppler radar will be used to produce updated weather maps every half hour, and a disaster warning system will operate in real time, the paper said. Beijing has also erected 106 of a planned 164 weather monitoring stations across the city.
Along with temperature, wind speed, and cloud cover, the bureau aims to forecast the timing and intensity of rainfall to within 1 square kilometer (0.40 square miles), the paper said.
"Issuing weather forecasts over the Olympics will be very labor intensive and will require considerable expertise by local forecasters. But a shortage of skilled weathermen will be a major hindrance," the Beijing bureau's deputy chief engineer Wang Yubin was quoted as saying by Xinhua.
Xinhua said hundreds of experienced weathermen will be loaned to the Beijing Meteorological Bureau to cope with the Olympics.
Weather has long been a highly politicized issue in China, with the Communist Party claiming to have cloud seeding programs to induce rain. Forecasters are also widely suspected of understating summer temperatures to avoid triggering standing orders to send workers home in unusual heat.
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