| NWS Has Winter Olympics Weather | |
Other than cold, what kind of weather awaits fans and athletes at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, Utah this February? Thanks to a unique partnership between NOAA's National Weather Service, the University of Utah, and Salt Lake City's KSL-TV, accurate, timely and venue-specific weather forecasts will be readily available during the Games.
The Winter Olympics will be staged in Northern Utah Feb. 8-24, 2002. With the Wasatch Mountains rising more than 11,000 feet as it forms the dramatic perimeter of Salt Lake City, the city and surrounding areas will host 3,500 athletes and officials from 80 countries participating in seven winter sports and more than 78 medal events. In addition, the world's top Paralympians take the same stage March 7-16, 2002 for the VIII Paralympic Winter Games.
Understanding how critical weather is to winter sports, the Salt Lake Olympic Committee (SLOC) pulled together a first-ever partnership of government and private meteorologists as well as academic experts to share forecast responsibilities. Called the Salt Lake 2002 Weather Support Project, the weather team will provide a safe competition venue for the athletes and weather forecasts for the throngs of fans at the Games.
SLOC president and CEO Mitt Romney explained the individual responsibilities of the Weather Support Project. "NOAA's National Weather Service will provide the base-level meteorological and hydrological services used by the weather partners. This includes issuing winter storm warnings to the state's two million residents as well as an estimated one and one-half million visitors expected to come to the Games. The weather service will also brief public safety, aviation operations, security and emergency management officials."
"The weather service and our sister NOAA agencies will work together to ensure the safety of several million people during the Olympic Winter Games. We will continually provide the latest high-tech weather, water and climate information," said retired Brig. Gen. Jack Kelly, director of the National Weather Service (NWS). "The public will be relying on us as they plan their commute from venue to venue and how to protect themselves from the outdoor elements."
To ensure safe and efficient travel to and from the many "park and ride" lots serving the event venues, the NWS will issue at least two special hazardous winter weather forecasts during each day of both the Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games.
At each venue, a team of private meteorologists, coordinated by Salt Lake City's KSL-TV's chief meteorologist Mark Eubank, will continually brief SLOC management officials, venue managers, coaches and athletes, on weather conditions and forecasts. At least one fully equipped private meteorologist will be at each venue throughout the Games.
The University of Utah's Department of Meteorology has developed weather tracking systems designed specifically for Utah and the Games. Five years ago the University received funding from the United States government and began installing weather sensors that detect temperature, wind, humidity and precipitation at each of the venues. Each venue has an average of three sensors.
During the World Cup and U.S. Finals competitive events staged in Utah during the winter of 2001, the Weather Support Project team tested its systems and learned first-hand the importance of weather to winter sports when one Olympic test event was cancelled due to too much snow.
SLOC's Romney said, "As we saw during the downhill and super-G World Cups this year at Snowbasin, the weather is highly variable and plays a key role in Olympic competition. We're confident the weather specialists we've assembled will make the venues safe for athletes and comfortable for spectators."
Where to get forecasts and Olympics
information
Constantly updated Olympic winter weather forecasts and climatic information
will be available on the Internet. Web sites participating in the Salt Lake 2002 Weather Support
Project include:
• Olympic Weather Overview - Historic data showing weather extremes and averages at each Olympic venue. From the University of Utah Department of Meteorology
• National Weather Service, Salt Lake City, Utah - Constantly updated forecasts, plus detailed satellite and radar images for the entire Salt Lake City region.
• Salt Lake 2002 - The official Web site of the 2002 Olympic Winter Games. Includes schedules, ticketing, transportation, accommodations and more.
• KSL-TV (NBC), Salt Lake City Utah - Comprehensive Winter Olympics news coverage.
