By John Branch and Sam Dolnickfeb, New York Times

KRASNAYA POLYANA, Russia — Warm weather is threatening the outdoor events at the Winter Olympics, forcing organizers to shuffle schedules, tap into reserve stockpiles of snow and scramble workers into action.

Afternoon temperatures at the ski jumping venue on Thursday reached 63 degrees. A practice session for the men’s aerials competition scheduled for Thursday night was canceled, and the men’s super combined ski race on Friday was moved to 10am local time from 11am to avoid midday temperatures expected to approach the mid-50s. Crews have begun adding snow, some of which was stockpiled from last year, to portions of the course.

For most of the mountain venues, the issue is not the amount of snow, but its condition. Workers at the Laura Biathlon & Ski Complex spread more than a ton of a salt mixture across the cross-country skiing courses on Thursday to help improve the slushy areas, a strategy also employed at the site of Alpine skiing across the valley where all the outdoor events are held.

Read the whole story