It is yet another attempt by man to triumph over nature. Determined not to let anything spoil their party, organisers of the 2008 Summer Olympics said last week that they had taken control over the most unpredictable element of all—the weather.

Meteorologists have been perfecting what they call “weather modification” techniques to make sure rain doesn’t fall on the stadium where the Olympics’ opening ceremony is to take place on August 8.

“Our team is trained,” said Wang Jianjie, a spokeswoman from the Beijing Meteorological Bureau, addressing a news conference at the headquarters of the Beijing organising committee.

The Chinese are among the world’s leaders in weather manipulation but have more experience creating rain than preventing it. In fact, the techniques are virtually the same. Meteorologists blast into the clouds exploding shells that release particles of silver iodide, a compound used in photography. That breaks up the water droplets into smaller sizes that are less likely to fall. Another cloud seeding technique is to induce the rain before the event, which has the added benefit of washing away Beijing’s notorious dust and smog.

The manipulation would be used only on a small area, leaving what is essentially a dry spot around the 100,000-seat Olympic stadium. The $400 million stadium, nicknamed the “birds nest” for its design of interlacing steel beams, has no roof.

“This is really a very complex process in terms of selecting the place and the time,” said Wang Yubin, an engineer from the meteorological bureau. “Probably we will have to decide one day before or very close to the event.”

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