Drizzle, not drenching, likely at opening ceremony

BEIJING (Reuters) - Forecasters are not ruling out a drizzly Olympic Games opening ceremony in Beijing, with data from previous years pointing to a 41 percent chance of rain on the day, the city's Meteorological Bureau said on Sunday.

A prolonged drenching is unlikely, the Bureau's Deputy Director Wang Jianjie said.

Any showers on Friday night should not spoil the much-vaunted opening show, or its firework display, for a huge global television audience.

A detailed prediction for the evening will not be released until Wednesday but a forecast for the period up until then shows persistent rain is unlikely.

"We exclude continuous heavy rain before and on the day of the opening ceremony," Wang told a news conference. "However we don't exclude that on the 8th of August there might be periodic rain."

Organizers are hoping to fulfill a nation's hopes that the ceremony will showcase its economic progress to the world, especially after a South Korean TV crew breached a security cordon and filmed part of a rehearsal.

August is the peak of China's annual rainy season. Forecasters expect slightly more rainfall and above-average temperatures this year, a concern to athletes affected by high humidity.

The co-host cities of Qingdao, Shanghai and Hong Kong could be affected by tropical cyclones, Wang said.

Wang said temperatures in Beijing should average around 24.9 degrees Celsius, and any peaks above that would be short-lived.

The 3- hour extravaganza will be held at the 91,000-seat Bird's Nest national stadium.

(Reporting by Catherine Bremer, editing by Miles Evans)

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