As the most Winter Olympic competitions are held at outdoor mountain venues, the success of the events is largely dependent on prompt accurate weather forecasting. Factors such as temperature, wind direction, wind speed and snow may affect athletes’ performance and competition schedules.

China Meteorological Administration (CMA) started its preparations for the 2022 Winter Olympic weather support services as soon as Beijing was announced as the host city of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games.

The CMA had installed 441 sets of modern observation facilities in three competition venues, together with weather radar and meteorological satellites to secure 3D observation data. Professional weather forecasters were selected and trained dedicated to the Winter Olympic Games especially in the mountainous area each winter since 2017.

In addition, the high-resolution Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) system had been developed to provide 100-meter and minute-level operational weather forecast. AI technology had also been introduced in the weather forecast.

CMA developed a meteorological service system for the Winter Olympics, releasing various forms of special meteorological services and data products for transportation, games watching and emergency rescue through various channels such as official website and APP.

Accurate weather information customized to each stadium were produced and made available to the athletes, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and to the local organizing committee to support the effective schedule of events as well as the successful outdoors opening/closing ceremonies.

With the successful weather support services, the CMA received a lot of compliments from foreign and domestic athletes, sports organizers and staff. The CMA gained valuable experiences and assets through providing weather support services for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. In addition, the ‘Science and Technology Winter Olympics’ project of CMA has been included in the World Meteorological Organization (WMO)'s High-impact Weather Forecasting Demonstration Project, which can provide experience and knowledge more widely used for other international sports events in the future.