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If you think Beijing has been cold, just wait till minus 30 hits the mountains

Anthony Sharwood

If you've been watching the Winter Olympics, you know it's dry and extremely cold in Beijing.

It's even colder in the mountains at Genting Snow Park, where most of Australia’s medal hopes are competing, including Jakara Anthony who won gold in the moguls on Sunday night.

So just how cold is it right now?

It's hard to say precisely, and here's why.

Over the past two nights, Channel 7 commentators Jason "Richo" Richardson and Lydia Lassila have said the ambient air temperature was around minus 20, with a wind chill that felt much colder.

They were reporting from Genting Snow Park, which is situated at around 1700 m above sea level, in the mountains about 200 km northwest of Beijing.

The problem is that are no official forecasts or observations for Genting Snow Park or nearby towns at a similar altitude available on China's main weather site, the China Meteorological Administration (CMA).

So here's what we CAN tell you

We know that since the Games officially commenced with the Opening Ceremony last Friday, Beijing's minimums have ranged between around -9°C and -4°C, while maximums have been between 1°C and 6°C above zero.

We know also that Beijing is situated at just 44 metres above sea level.

So if you take into account the fact that the temperature tends to drop about 0.7°C for every 100 metres you ascend (not taking into account local microclimates, winds etc), it stands to reason that a night of -5°C in Beijing would translate to about -15°C or slightly colder in the mountains.

Seems like Richo and Lydia haven't been too far from the mark.

We can also tell you this: that by this time next week, it's going to get a whole lot colder.

A Siberian airmass is set to descend on northern China

As you can see in the image above which shows the weather situaiton next Monday, frigid air is coming (purple shading represents temps of -14°C or colder) to the Winter Olympics zones.

This week, maximums in Beijing will peak at a relatively balmy 8 or 9 degrees for a few days. By early next week, max temps will be BELOW zero.

There's a reasonably large city called Zhangjiakou near the competition zones around Genting Snow Park. The city sits at around 700 metres above sea level.

In Zhangjiakou, maximums will hover around -6°C for the second week of the Games, while minimums will bottom out around -20°C, according to the CMA (you can change from °F to °C after clicking the link).

If you ascend another 1,000 metres in elevation to the nearby competition zones at 1700 metres above sea level, it's pretty reasonable (based on the formula we mentioned above of a drop of approximately 0.7°C per 100 metres) to say we might be looking at maximums of -12° or -13° and minimums close to -30°.

That's seriously frigid – and that's before you factor in the wind chill. Good luck to the athletes and anyone who has to work outdoors on the courses!

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