For the first time in Olympic history weather support will be the responsibility of a team composed of groups from the public,private and academic sectors. The National Weather Service will provide area-wide forecasts for the protection of public lives and property. A private sector team assembled by the KSL television station in SLC will make tailored forecasts for the outdoor sports venues.The Univ. of Utah will perform research to improve high-resolution analysis and forecast models to be run during the games, install and maintain sensors at the sports venues & other key sites, make these data available for the official Olympic records and to forecasters, and provide training to forecasters and volunteer weather aides.
An Olympic Weather operations Center staffed by NWS and KSL forecasters will be open 24 hours per day/ 7 days per week providing these forcasts to the public and to Olympic officials responsible for their safety and security.The KSL Event Team forecasters will staff each of the five outdoor venues from about 4:00 am to 6:00 pm on all race and training days,providing forecast to sports and venue officials. The weather aides, who are mostly meteorology students at the U. of Utah, will be at each outdoor venue fromm about 6:00 am to 6:00 pm, sending official weather observations to Olympic officials, taking special manual weather observations,and maintaining sensors.The U. of Utah will supply high resolution analyses and forecasts to all forecasters on the Olympic team.
In addition to the real-time activities during the games, climate planning information is being supplied to the National Olympic Committees of many countries,to the Olympic Torch Relay,to construction personnel at venues, Opening and Closing ceremonies, security , emergency response, & air & ground transportation, and others.
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