Beijing is first to host both Winter and Summer Olympics

By Bryan Mims, WRAL reporter

Beijing is the first city to host both the Summer and Winter Olympics. WRAL meteorologist Elizabeth Gardner says its all in the coordinates.

Before this year's big air and slalom and half-pipe events, Beijing may not have conjured up images of a cold, snowy winter sports destination. Especially since 14 years ago, the summer athletes had their moment in the sun here.

But consider its geography. Beijing is as far north as Philadelphia; both cities share roughly the same latitude.

With Beijing a little more than 100 miles from the coast, Gardner says the summer climate there is much like Raleigh's.

"In the summertime, they get this flow coming off the ocean that's humid and it's hot. So that's how they're able to host the Summer Olympics," she said.

The city of Beijing is only about 140 feet above sea level. How does a low-elevation city with hot, humid summers host a Winter Olympics?

It's winters are more reliably colder than those in the Triangle, Gardner said.

"Ours goes back and forth," she said. "We'll have a northwesterly flow, and it's cold. Then we'll get a southwesterly flow, and it's warm. But in Beijing, it's a northwesterly flow all the time, and it's coming across the entire continent of Eurasia. so it's very dry and colder than we see here."

The Chinese authorities stretched the geography a bit, too. Skiing events take place in the mountains more than 100 miles northwest of Beijing, at an elevation similar to that of Asheville.

"We don't have a lot of skiing in Asheville, but because they have a cold, dry climate, as long as they go about 100 miles west into the mountains, it's cold enough to sustain snow," Gardner said.

"Their afternoon highs average about ten degrees lower than we do here."

Those mountains are arid. All the snow in this year's Olympics is machine-made. The region gets less than an inch of precipitation each winter.

So for Beijing to host the Winter Games, it needs an army of snow machines.

There are other cities that have the right climate to host both Summer and Winter Games.

Salt Lake City, host of the 2002 Winter Olympics, is an option.

"They have a nice warm summer there, but it's not humid, and of course they have those gorgeous mountains," Gardner said.

Mountains and snow in winter; sunshine and balminess in summer are the key to how a city can host both swimming and slalom.

The 2022 Winter Olympics could have gone elsewhere, but Norway and several other European countries retracted their bids over the cost of hosting, leaving only China and Kazakhstan in the running.