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Summer Olympics Disaster Guide: Opening Ceremony EditionThe Olympics are all set to kick off. What could possibly go wrong?

By Lucy Morrow Caldwell, Kara Hadge, Nayeli Rodriguez, and Derek ThompsonPosted Thursday, Aug. 7, 2008, at 11:01 AM ET

Check out Slate's complete coverage of the Beijing Games.

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Rachael Larimore offered suggestions to get readers in the mood for the start of the Games. Tom Scocca, writing from Beijing, said something in the air made him nervous about the Olympics back in December. Jacob Leibenluft wondered if world leaders would boycott the opening ceremony. Anne Applebaum said the Olympics would provide an ideal stage for political protests. Shmuel Rosner said we shouldn't be surprised to see the Darfur debate rear its head this August.

Scenario: The chance of precipitation in Beijing in early August is 50 percent, but China isn't leaving anything to chance. The government plans to stop the rain by firing silver iodide rockets into the sky in the hope of wringing water from the clouds before they soak the opening ceremony. With so much invested—financially and publicity-wise—in weather-controlling technology, a wet opening ceremony would be a major embarrassment, not to mention a major bummer for the fans.
Chance it could happen: 50 percent
Scary quote: "I don't think their chances of preventing rain are very high at all," said Roelof Bruintjes of the U.S. National Center for Atmospheric Research. "We can't chase away a cloud, and nobody can make a cloud, either."
Update, Aug. 7: Weather.com's 10-day forecast predicts rain throughout the first week of the Olympics. That's a bummer for the International Olympic Committee but a blessing for endurance athletes praying for rain to wash away the Beijing haze.

Scenario: Getting water to Beijing, a landlocked city, is a major undertaking. The Chinese government has begun diverting more than 39.6 billion gallons to a dried-up lake near the capital city—a public-works project that has displaced an estimated 300,000 citizens. Northern China has been fighting drought for years, so Beijing's added demands have many Chinese fearing that there won't be enough water to go around. There's also the (slim) possibility of protests by parched attendees of this year's Games.
Chance it could happen: 10 percent
Scary quote: "Sometimes you wonder if they need all the water more than us here," said Shi Yinzhu, a Chinese sheep herder.
Update, Aug. 7: China says it has all the water it needs for athletes and visitors.

Scenario: The Yellow Sea, the Olympic sailing venue, is full of ships. Unfortunately, they're not racing vessels; they're gunk removers, dispatched to clean up an enormous algae outbreak that's choking 5,000 square miles of open water. The Chinese government planned to remove the green stuff by mid-July. Until then, international sailing teams were practicing in what looked like a putting green.
Chance it could happen: 10 percent
Scary quote: "There's no way you can sail through it," said British windsurfer Bryony Shaw. "If it's still here in August, it could be a real problem."
Update, Aug. 7: Most of the gunk is gone, but Xinhua News Agency reports that "sporadic algae" still lingers near the sailing venue. The competition will likely go on though an assistant chairman of the sailing committee has said that a large storm could still force Beijing to suspend the competition.

Scenario: If you thought locusts were a problem only in Old Testament times, think again. In 2002, the pests devoured 3.7 million acres of farmland in northern and central China. The insects are now eating their way through Inner Mongolia just in time for the start of the Games. The last time locusts reached the capital, locals snagged the protein-filled insects for midsummer snacks. International athletes unaccustomed to the Chinese diet might not be so pleased to find the creatures in their mouths during a competition.
Chance it could happen: 5 percent
Scary quote: "The first-generation locusts this year in the areas have already hatched," said Gao Wenyuan, a Chinese official. "The harm they do is obvious."
Update, Aug. 7: No word in recent weeks on the locust swarms that had been eating their way south from Mongolia. Perhaps the insects are quietly gathering their strength for the weeks to come.