It's been a warm winter in Sochi, Russia, and Olympic planners are worried about next year's Games. So they're hoarding 450,000 cubic meters of snow in a local mountain range, Reuters reports. "I want to assure all the competitors that there won't be any shortage of snow next February even if we encounter even warmer temperatures next year," says Sergei Bachin, the head of a ski resort that will be used in the events.
"We've prepared seven separate areas for snow storage high up in the mountains," and organizers are using a "special thermo seal" to keep it cold, Bachin notes. Some 140,000 cubic meters are likely to "melt away," he adds, but that leaves more than 300,000 cubic meters. The added storage cost: some $11 million. Typically, the Sochi-area village hosting the Games, Krasnaya Polyana, has too much snow. "This was a very odd winter. Even locals don't remember when was the last time they had such warm days in the mountains," Bachin says. (More Olympics stories.)
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