We examined the weather conditions at the 2022 Winter Olympics sites and compared them with those at previous winter sports venues since 1994, as well as with Innsbruck (1964, 1976), a typical Alpine location. We did not examine Turin (2006), Vancouver (2010) and Pyeongchang (2018) in more detail because these cities are located outside winter sports areas and their competition sites were more widely distributed.
1. Winter climate of Beijing, Zhangjiakou, Yanqing Xian was calculated using the 10-year average from 2011-2020 for December to March:
- The average winter temperature in the Olympic city of Beijing is -0.5 ºC, which is not low enough to ensure smooth winter sports operations. This was similar at most of the previous venues.
- Therefore, most competitions are held in the mountainous region northwest of Beijing. In Zhangjiakou, where the Nordic skiing and biathlon competitions are held, the average temperature is already a wintry -6.3ºC, and in Yanqing Xian, the venue with alpine ski runs and the toboggan run, it is -4.3ºC.
- With an average of 15 km/h, the wind speed in Zhangjiakou is significantly higher than at the two other competition venues. As Zhangjiakou also hosts ski jumping, these competitions might be more threatened by the wind conditions.
- Due to a strong cold high-pressure area over Siberia in the winter, mostly cold and dry northwest winds reach northeast China in winter. These dry air masses ensure that the amount of snowfall is low at all competition locations and that artificial snowmaking is indispensable to maintain winter sports operations.
2. comparison with 5 previous venues on a 10-year average (2011-2020) for December to March:
- Sochi (2014 Olympic city) stands out for its high average winter temperature of 7.5 ºC. This can be explained by the direct location of the 'winter sports resort' on the Black Sea.
- Lillehammer, the 1994 venue, is the only city where the 10-year average is permanently below 0ºC in winter, at -3.7ºC.
- Innsbruck (1964, 1976 Olympics) and Salt Lake City (2002 Olympics) are particularly notable for their high average wind speeds. As a result, sports such as ski jumping or biathlon are endangered, as their schedules depend on wind speed.
- Snowfall amounts are difficult to compare, as they can change considerably over small areas in mountainous terrain. We use model data from ERA5 here, which reflects the average amounts from the area. The highest average snowfall amounts are recorded in Nagano (Olympic city 1998) with over 3 metres. Innsbruck and Lillehammer reach 135 and 102 cm, Salt Lake City 67 cm. Sochi also achieves about 80 cm, but this quickly melts away in the city itself due to the influence of the sea.
- The comparison of the monthly snow amounts was calculated with local models, which better represent the daily snowfall: here it shows that only Nagano and Lillehammer can boast permanent snow covers.
This year's Olympic city, Beijing, does not show significantly worse meteorological conditions from a climatic point of view compared to previous Olympic cities. With the exception of the amount of snowfall, Beijing is within the average range of the other host cities. So from a climatic point of view, it is only slightly less suitable than previous locations in terms of snowfall amount.
Addition: the snowfall of 13.Feb 2022 actually already exceeded the long-term average.
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