Winds cool down snow See how the Snow Sports at the Beijing Winter Olympics respond to weather changes

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, Yanqing, February 13 .00

Xinhua News Agency

Since the 12th, the various competition areas of the Beijing Winter Olympic Games have begun to experience a wave of strong winds, cooling and snowfall. Snow sports that are more sensitive to weather changes are mainly distributed in Yanqing and Zhangjiakou. Cold air is coming, how to deal with the venues in the two divisions?

Accurate forecasting is a prerequisite

Before the start of the competition, Yanqing and Zhangjiakou have built a high-precision weather observation network, and forecasters have conducted field forecast training for many years in advance, which can currently provide accurate forecasting services for the event.

Taking some venues as an example, the National Alpine Ski Center "Xuefeiyan" has built 21 sets of automatic weather stations; the Zhangjiakou Winter Olympic Core Meteorological Observation Station Network consists of 19 sets of equipment, covering the National Ski Jumping Center "Snow Ruyi", the National Cross-Country SkiIng Center and the National Biathlon Center. These stations can monitor and collect weather factor information such as air temperature and wind speed in real time.

"Every hour, the computer generates weather forecast products based on this data. After the forecaster makes corrections, it is provided to the event organizer. Shi Shaoying, deputy director of the Beijing Meteorological Observatory and deputy head of the meteorological service team in Yanqing, said that the alpine skiing track can make targeted forecasts for key points of the track distributed at different altitudes. When the change in factors such as wind speed, snowfall or visibility reaches a certain level, the International Snow Federation requires us to give a forecast in real time, which is not an hourly forecast, but means that we have to predict the weather at any time on the spot. Shi Shaoying said.

On the 6th, the alpine skiing men's downhill event competition has been postponed once due to strong gusts. Shi Shaoying said that this was a decision made by the tournament referee committee composed of officials of the International Snow Federation and others. The impact of this weather change on alpine skiing sites is mainly based on low visibility and strong gusts caused by snowfall; due to the short competition time of alpine skiing, cooling will not have much impact on athletes. Whether the match period is adjusted shall be subject to the decision of the referee committee.

"We have set aside alternate days for possible schedule changes." Jenny Videk, director of press and communications at the International Snow Federation, said. She also expressed her praise for the Chinese meteorological team: "Their forecasts have always been accurate and worthy of our trust. ”

The weather has changed, what about the snow?

High-hardness icy snow is the standard for racing snow. According to the regulations of the International Snow Federation, after snowfall, the competition venue needs to clean the natural snow to ensure the snow quality of the track.

In layman's terms, the line leveling work is to remove the natural snowfall from the snow path by stepping on the snowboard by the leveling personnel. The snowfall on the 12th and 13th increased the workload of the line leveling personnel.

"Usually we go up the mountain at five o'clock in the morning, but we have to be on standby these days to create snow conditions suitable for the competition." Hou Jiahuan, a domestic technical official for alpine skiing, said.

In ski jumping, cross-country skiing and other competition venues, after snowfall, snow blowers need to be used to clean the snow troughs. Guo Ying, director of the ancient poplar tree stadium group in Zhangjiakou Division, introduced that "Snow Ruyi" has prepared 21 snow blowing machines, and the National Cross-Country Ski Center conducted a blizzard snow blowing drill on the 12th.

At present, the two divisions are well prepared with snow. Wei Qinghua, manager of the mountain operation site of the ancient poplar tree stadium in Zhangjiakou, said that the venue began snowmaking in early November 2021 and took seven weeks to complete. The mountain running team performs five hours of shaping work every night.

"The race needs to be stable and there will be no more snow without special circumstances. In response to the extremes, we prepared more than 100,000 cubic meters of reserve snow at three venues. Wei Qinghua said.

The logistics support team is always on call

Power security in low temperature environments, large-scale equipment operation and medical rescue are difficulties in extreme weather response. The winter Olympic power support team in the core area of Zhangjiakou carried out special patrols and special protection for the Aoxue, Genting and Ancient Poplar Substations, and strengthened the inspection of transformers, GIS, ice melting and snow melting equipment and other facilities.

Cross-country skiing is known as a "snow marathon". Due to the long competition time, the impact of cooling on the athlete's competition experience is more obvious. Before each race, the medical security team will arrange medical supply points according to the type of competition, the length of the track, etc.

"Usually five points are arranged in each game, arranged in the place where the athletes are most vulnerable. The rescue team at each point consists of 4 people, including a team leader, doctors, nurses and an English-speaking volunteer. Gao Yu, medical officer of the National Cross-Country Skiing Center, said, "When athletes are injured, suddenly ill, and lose temperature, they are equipped with thermal blankets, which can be treated on the spot at the first time." "In addition, the National Cross-Country Ski Center has a 20 degree Celsius heated house.

The wind has a great influence on the performance of ski jumping. Wang Jingxian, facility manager of the ancient poplar tree stadium group, said that the natural drop in the valley where the venue is located is more than 130 meters, and the mountains on both sides can shield or weaken the wind; and the later construction of the windproof net will reduce the wind speed in the jumping area of the venue to less than 4 meters per second.

In "Xuefeiyan", when the automatic weather station encounters extreme weather, its wind sensor may be frozen, resulting in missing mechanical wind data; if the solar panel is covered with snow, the device will not be able to take power normally. A 7-person peripheral meteorological service team needs to be inspected and overhauled at any time.

Vice captain Gao Meng introduced that the team had to wear crampons to climb on the steep slope every time, and often had to carry dozens of pounds of batteries and other equipment. "It's snowing again these days. For the hidden danger points that may occur, we all have a spectrum in our hearts and are confident of doing a good job in ensuring meteorological services for the Winter Olympics. Gao Meng said. (Written by: Wang Qinou; Participating reporters: Lu Xianting, Xia Zilin, Yang Fan, Guo Yaru, Xia Liang, Sun Zhe, Wang Haoyu, Li Chunyu, Ni Yuanjin)