September 15, 2000 - Weathering The Sydney 2000 Games

With Sydney, Australia's climate defined by extremes such as flooding, heat and fires, athlete safety was a priority for the two-week event.

Sydney 2000 Games/Pexels

Forecasters faced the challenge of detecting and accurately predicting the movement and intensity of the boundaries that can play a major role in thunderstorm initiation and evolution. Photo: Pexels.

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Amazon Alexa | Google Assistant | Spotify | Google Podcasts | iHeartRadio | Overcast

On Sept. 15, 2000 - exactly 20 years ago today - Sydney, Australia hosted the opening ceremonies for the Summer Olympics.

The Millennium Olympic Games, or Sydney 2000, featured a record number of athletes at the time (10,651) representing 199 countries.

With Sydney’s climate defined by extremes such as flooding, heat and fires, athlete safety was a priority for the two-week event.

Forecasters faced the challenge of detecting and accurately predicting the movement and intensity of the boundaries that can play a major role in thunderstorm initiation and evolution.

Content continues below

On today’s podcast, Chrie Mei talks about the weather events leading up to Sydney 2000 that put a stumbling block in the Games' preparation, and we’ll discuss how organizers were able to get daily weather reports for certain events.

This Day In Weather History” is a daily podcast by The Weather Network that features unique and informative stories from host Chris Mei.