Qatar World Cup Will Have Artificial Clouds

If you haven’t heard already, Russia will host the 2018 World Cup and Qatar will host the 2022 World Cup. Wait, hold on, wasn’t the last World Cup held in South Africa just last year? I mean it seems kind of early to be thinking of the biggest event in soccer 11 years ahead. 2014 in Brazil seems a long ways away let alone Qatar and Russia. But seriously Russia and Qatar? One country is known for its chilling winters and the other for scorching deserts. I know soccer players are tough but come on!


Well at least Qatar seems to have gotten a head start on preparation as they plan to counter one of the biggest challenges: the heat. You see, Qatar is located in the Middle East, a country that mainly consists of low, barren plains, covered with sand. As a result, June and July, the time when the World Cup is held, are one of the hottest times for the country with temps reaching as high as 115 F and lows at a mild 84 F. Thus Qatar agreed to provide climate-controlled and zero-carbon emitting stadiums. But this is Qatar we’re talking about, the “Saudi Arabia of natural gas” with the highest GDP per capita in the Arab world and the second highest GDP per capita in the world according the CIA World Factbook. They have money to spend.


So of course, it shouldn’t be a surprise that researchers at Qatar University’s Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering are designing a fleet of artificial “clouds” to give some cloud coverage over spectators and players. The Qatari researchers say that they be able to have each one be solar-powered, will float via on-board helium pockets and will moved by remote controlled.


The university’s department head, Saud Abdul Ghani, says that the “Artificial clouds will move by remote control, made of 100 percent light carbonic materials, fueled by four solar-powered engines and will fly high to protect direct and indirect sun rays to control temperatures at the open playgrounds.”


The “clouds” are estimated to cost about a half a million each and seeing how they’re planning to build about a dozen eco-friendly stadiums, the price for development is going to pretty high. Maybe they can spend some money to research how to block out the sun completely. You know maybe like some kind of shade or something.

Yeah like that.