Beijing has set up new automatic weather stations (AWS) around local sports venues, in order to provide accurate weather forecasts for the 2008 Olympic Games, a local newspaper Beijing News reported on Wednesday.

Currently, the city has 176 AWSs, one for every 5 square kilometers in urban areas and one for every 10 or 15 sq km in the suburbs, a spokesman for the municipal meteorological bureau told the newspaper.

According to the official, the bureau plans to build up to 15 AWSs for Olympic sites, of which 12 have been completed. The completed stations are in major Olympic venues like Olympic National Park, Shunyi Olympic Aquatic Park, Chaoyang Park, Xiannongtan Stadium, Fengtai Sport Center, Beijing Country Equestrian Park, and the Tennis Center of Olympic National Park.

"The 13th one is being built in the base of the Paralympic Games in Beijing's northeastern Shunyi District," said the official.

"AWSs in Olympic sites have to meet special requirements such as the ability to measure visibility and total radiation and ultra-violet ray radiation. That is in addition to measuring temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, wind direction, wind force and precipitation", he said.

"These AWSs will collect meteorological information at the Olympic venues on a large scale and help local meteorological offices to provide more accurate and timely weather forecasts," he added.

Zhang Mingying, an expert with the bureau, said that to obtain more detailed and accurate weather information, more AWSs will be built in the city next year.

(Xinhua News Agency November 22, 2007)