EXPLAINER: How to stage Olympics in a snow-challenged city

By KELVIN CHAN
Associated Press

BEIJING (AP) — Dry Beijing barely gets any winter precipitation, which makes this year’s Winter Games the first to rely almost entirely on artificial snow for the skiing and snowboarding events. Such a massive snowmaking operation comes with environmental concerns given the huge amounts of water and electricity it takes. These Winter Games are expected to use 49 million gallons of water, the equivalent of 74 Olympic swimming pools, for snowmaking, but some experts think that number vastly underestimates the amount needed.