Beijing Olympic Meteorological Service Center will provide a weather forecast every three hours for all Olympic venues 72 hours in advance, said Yu Xinwen, China Meteorological Administration (CMA) spokesman, on Wednesday.

"We will also provide weather forecasts for every hour 24 hours in advance, to meet the demand of special sports events," he said at a press conference in Beijing.

Four satellites will take cloud images every 15 minutes, while 186 automated weather stations around the city about five km apart and in suburbs 10 km apart will gather data every five minutes. Seven fixed Doppler radar stations and two mobile radar stations are also in service.

Qiao Lin, chief forecaster of the National Meteorological Center of CMA, said it would be cloudy and overcast on August 7, and flights arriving and departing the Capital Airport would not be affected.

He said Beijing would not have extreme weather in the next week.

(Xinhua News Agency August 6, 2008)