UNITED KINGDOM: After its wettest June for more than a century, Britain hopes for some relief from the rain in time for the Olympic Games

Record ID: 330895

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: After its wettest June for more than a century, Britain hopes for some relief from the rain in time for the Olympic Games
  • Date: 16th July 2012
  • Summary: LONDON 2012 SIGN ON BRIDGE OVER GREENWICH STREET
  • Embargoed: 31st July 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Weather,Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA11RMBL9POM1QXJ7WVWM5I6MJK
  • Story Text: It's already the UK's wettest summer for more than a century, immortalised by the image of Queen Elizabeth celebrating her Diamond Jubilee in a downpour, but London is braced to host the Olympics in ten days time, whatever the weather.
    A quarter of a million rain ponchos are at the ready, along with an army of volunteers equipped with umbrellas and rain jackets. And London Mayor Boris Johnson remains defiant - or in denial.

    "It rains more in Rome than it does in London, that's the key statistic," Johnson said on Monday (July 16), to guffaws from members of the international media.

    "Let me tell you, I can give you the official meteorological statistics; it is officially not raining in London 94 percent of the time. And you will see what our great city has to offer."
    UK Sports Minister Hugh Robertson then declined an invitation from a visiting journalist to apologise for the British weather.

    "It's always pretty pointless apologising for the British weather, isn't it? It's a fact of life over here. No, top class sportsmen in any sport know that they have to compete in all conditions, and those conditions are challenging, whether it's high winds, whether it's very warm weather, whether it's rain. So top international sportsmen and women prepare for all eventualities," said Robertson.
    That certainly appeared to be the case for the Brazilian beach volleyball team, at their training centre in Crystal Palace, south London. An exact replica of the outdoor Olympic court on which they will compete - with identical sand - has been constructed. And the head of Brazil's Olympic mission, a former gold medal winner himself, preferred to focus on the warmth of the welcome, rather than the dampness of the climate.

    "I think that stronger than the rain and the bad weather is the big and warm heart that they showed us since the first time that we came here two years ago to do the first inspections," said Bernard Rajzman.
    That may be just as well, because heavy showers continued on Monday, as Olympic guests began to pour into the capital, and the forecast for the coming weeks is far from encouraging.
    Meteorologist Julian Mayes expects to see some improvement this week.

    "There is going to be, as I say, Wednesday night into Thursday a risk of some heavy rain. Not so much maybe in London but particularly in central and northern Britain. And then the weather settling down a bit, Friday, Saturday, and then just as we think we're coming into a fine weekend, the promise of another depression, hopefully delayed until the early part of next week."
    Any improvement, though, would be in the context of one of the wettest summers on record.

    "You've got to go back to 1860 to find a June anything like as wet, and it was probably tying with 1860, so an average of about 160mm of rain averaged across England and Wales in June," Mayes, of Meteo Group, told Reuters.
    Planning any outdoor event during the unpredictable British summer, renowned for its potential to throw up more rainy spells than sunshine, requires drawing up contingency plans and keeping a close eye on the weather.
    Multiply that challenge for several million spectators, 70,000 volunteers and 10,500 of the world's top athletes, and then you have some idea of the challenge facing organisers of the London Olympics.
    However, they are confident bad weather will not disrupt their plans during the July 27-August 12 Games, while the love-hate relationship between the British public and their country's weather looked likely to ensure solid support for the athletes.
    At Greenwich Park, Britain's oldest royal park that also forms part of a world heritage site, specialist consultants have been drafted in to make sure the venue is up to the challenge of hosting the equestrian events.
    Their work has focused on the 5.7 kilometre cross-country course that is seen as the most exposed of the equestrian events to bad weather conditions.
    Laura Sessions, a Greenwich resident who was not able to get any tickets to the Olympics, wasn't sure what impact the wet weather would have on the Games.

    "It's hard to say. The land is probably going to be really soggy and sodden, so I don't know how it's going to be for horses. But, to be honest, probably. I pity the people who are going to be sitting outside, in the seats over there with no cover."
    Maggie Rylance, another Greenwich resident, voiced concern that the combination of crowds and rain would turn the ground to mud. Recent concerts in Hyde Park, where big screens will show the Olympic action, have required organisers to spread tons of woodchip over the churned up surface.
    But she did have one reason for optimism; an old English superstition.

    "It was St Swithin's Day yesterday, and it didn't rain. So when it doesn't rain on St Swithin's Day, let's hope it's sunny for 40 days and 40 nights," she said.
    Regardless of whether conditions improve over the two-week period, at least one venue is expecting a downpour.
    Danny Boyle, the artistic director behind the Games' opening ceremony on July 27, said he was seeking to capture the spirit of the British countryside by bringing an elaborate set of meadows, rivers and live animals into the Olympic stadium.

    "You begin with a certain kind of philosophy, which is, you think what were we, where have we come from, what's our heritage ... what are we now and where are we going?" Boyle said at a media briefing that unveiled part of the ceremony.
    Presumably that vision includes a little rain - a model of the opening scene featured clouds made of cotton wool, and Boyle promised to provide artificial rain, delivering a controlled rain shower to kick off the Games.
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