Doug Charko’s forecast for the Beijing Games? Windy (with a chance of medals)

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This article was published 06/02/2022 (1336 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Canadians are making an impact at the Beijing Olympics, and not just the athletes. Behind the scenes are Canadians vital to the smooth running of the Games. Second in a series:

Doug Charko is Team Canada’s “decision support meteorologist,” a.k.a. its chief weatherman. Wax technicians rely on him for weather projections from cloud cover to humidity so they can prepare athletes’ skis for the conditions and everyone else from alpine skiing to freestyle snowboarding wants to know about the wind. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

So much of your job deals with data and models. Why go to Beijing?

Being able to look out the window and see what’s going on is a huge help. Nothing worse than being 10,000 kilometres away and your forecast can’t even get the cloud condition right. I’m saying, “Hey, it’s cloudy,” and there’s not a cloud in the sky. The other thing, with the ski techs, I’ll have opportunity to have direct interaction with them and that is how you always learn and improve either the product or the system.

You’re working your eighth Olympics. How did you get into this?

I was in New Zealand working with an America’s Cup sailing team. And one of those sailors from Brazil asked me to go to Sydney 2000 to work with the Brazilian sailing team. That was my introduction.

The Olympics is the pinnacle for athletes. What’s it like for you?

Certainly with sailing, where a lot of meteorologists are involved, there’s a competition among the meteorologists. You want to be better than everyone else. So that makes it interesting. And the thing is, as a government meteorologist, you’re sending out a forecast that’s broadcast to the whole population. You don’t really get any direct feedback. But in this situation, where you’re face to face with your customers everyday, that’s a huge motivation. You want to get it right.

What’s the worst part of the job?

Being wrong. I’ve got a bad temperament for that. It really bothers me. And, again, because it’s at a personal level you’ve got the guy coming to you at the end of the day saying, ‘Hey, where did this come from? Why was it so much more windy?’ Facing the music, it’s a professional hazard.

What about that wind?

The Chinese meteorologists right at the beginning wrote that wind will be a factor at these Games. The prevailing winds are coming off the Gobi Desert. Cold and windy is probably the best way to summarize the mountain venues.

Did you say Gobi Desert?

It might be more towards the Paralympics (March 4-13), but you can (have) a dust storm blow in from the northwest. Now that would be a bad scenario, little tiny pieces of sand, and you can imagine what that would do for a pair of skis.

In general, how cold will it be in the mountain venues?

Beginning of the Games minus-20 to minus-12 daily range. By the end of Games there’s definitely a warming trend minus-15 to minus-8. Early morning you could have wind chills in the minus-30 to minus-35 on a very windy day.

Do you bring a Canadian flair to the job?

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I don’t know if it’s so much Canadian as old school. At the Winter Games, I’ve never run into another meteorologist. They may be feeding stuff remotely. I think the differentiation for me for the winter sports is the time I’ve been spending on the slopes and learning the temperature profile of each slope. The hands on stuff. A lot of people say, “Hey, you don’t need that,” but of course you do.

How have the COVID protocols affected you?

The work that I’m doing actually makes the whole bubble concept tolerable because I get to go outside, that’s part of my work.

What indoor Olympic sport would you want to watch in person?

Of course, the curling — I’m from Saskatchewan. In Sochi 2014, I actually got tickets to see curling. I was in the mountain so I had to make my way down to the coast and CBC had arranged to do an interview so I was at Canada Olympic House waiting for CBC. And I got bumped by (Russian President Vladimir) Putin. The guy showed up. I’m waiting, waiting, and I missed about half the curling.