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Poor snow falls had threatened some of the key events at the
biennial event that draws athletes from Canada, the United
States, Russia, Greenland, Sweden, Norway and Finland.
But volunteers have rallied round to scoop up flurries from
surrounding hills and bring them to the main venues before the
March 6 start date, games' General Manager, Maliina Abelsen,
told Reuters.
"The weather has been acting very strangely, but we are used to
that in Greenland, so we have learned to adapt," she said.
The Danish Meteorological Institute has forecast more snow for
the weekend, but that could bring more problems.
"We are not happy about that. We have 1,200 people flying into
(the capital) Nuuk over the course of the weekend, and snow
usually means delays in the air traffic," Abelsen said.
January and February saw temperatures five to six degrees above
the average on the world's biggest island. A blistering 10
degrees Celsius (50 degrees Fahrenheit) was recorded in Nuuk on
Jan. 20.
"These months have been warmer than normal, especially in
Southwest Greenland, where there has been many days with degrees
above zero," said Mogens Ronnebek, Greenland weather forecaster
with the Danish Meteorological Institute.
(Reporting by Nikolaj Skydsgaard; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
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