Olympic sailors and rowers will know right down to the last tiny gust of wind what weather conditions to expect during their events in the August Games, according the National Meteorological Service (EMY).

“The development of methods, such as ‘nowcasting’ for short-term forecasts, can record the movement of a storm cloud for the next two hours, predicting whether it will approach the Olympic Stadium, for example,” said Dimitris Ziakopoulos, director of EMY’s forecasting bureau.

On the occasion of today’s observance of World Meteorology Day, Ziakopoulos drew attention to the high degree of precision available to meteorologists.

For the purpose of the Games, bureaus have been set up at the Aghios Cosmas sailing center and the Schinias rowing center, as well as at Athens 2004 headquarters, to provide athletes with hourly forecasts from the 20 automated weather stations around the country and Doppler radar systems.