After the 'Tropical Olympics' in Sochi in 2014 and the similarly unseasonably warm, temperatures in BC at the start to the Vancouver Games in 2010 which led to a convoy of trucks bringing snow to Cypress Mountain for freestyle events at the start of the Olympics there, the weather for the 2018 Games is as big a concern as ever with athlete hoping for clear conditions and cold temperatures.
The first events are still four days away but currently the signs are pretty good. Long range forecasts which cover the entire Olympic period show little or no fresh snow expected until just after the games end, and then only 5 or 6cm.
South Korea does not get much natural snowfall and the games have spent many millions on the latest snowmaking systems from Technoalpin, so hopefully the snow will not be a problem this time.
Temperatures are perhaps a little warmer than Olympic competitors might like, set to reach plus temperatures in the afternoon but dropping below zero most days from late afternoon through to the following late morning. Of course forecasts beyond this weekend are subject to change.
South Korean ski areas do not seem to have any tradition of publishing live snow data in the way that European and North American ski areas do. The best it seems possible to get are temperatures and web cam images – from the latter slopes seem to have a good snow cover, if not a deep one, which is the south Korean norm.
The Olympic venues are nine hours ahead of the UK so the blue ribbon Men's Downhill taking placed at 11am on Sunday in South Korea will be on UK TV (BBC and Eurosport) at 2am Sunday morning. Most other eventys will take place in the small hours of the morning for UK-based viewers.
