Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, will be the first South American host of the OlympicGames, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced Friday just before 1p.m. EDT.Rio was selected over Madrid, Spain in the final round of the decision process.
Chicago and Tokyo, Japan were previously eliminated from contention.
Rio de Janeiro was the only southern hemisphere city in the final contentionfor the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. In fact, the southern hemisphere has hostedonly two other Summer Olympic games, both of which were in Australia.
Rio de Janeiro will host the games between August 5-21, which coincides withBrazil's dry season. The normal precipitation for the city in August is 1.7inches.
The dry season also yields the city's lowest average temperatures, which arearound 70 degrees through the season.
Dry seasons are caused by dry winds in the tropics between April and September,said AccuWeather.com Expert Senior Meteorologist Dan Kottlowski.
During that time of year, he added, the winds come more from the west than theeast. Although Rio de Janeiro is on the coast, the Atlantic ocean lies east ofthe city, which brings less moisture to the city in the Southern Hemisphere'swinter months when there are westerly winds.
Story by AccuWeather.com's Gina Cherundolo
