MOSCOW: Unseasonably heavy snow has fallen near the mountain venues of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics and meteorologists are optimistic there will be no shortage of snow for the Games in February, Russia’s chief weather forecaster said on Friday. Weather is a virtually uncontrollable factor in the success of the Olympics in sprawling Sochi, where ice events will be held on the subtropical Black Sea shore and mountain events on the slopes around the Krasnaya Polyana district. Unusually warm temperatures last winter prompted organisers of Russia’s first post-Soviet Olympics and first Winter Games to store some 450,000 cubic metres (16 million cubic feet) of snow in the mountains just in case.
