(Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

Olympic organizers seek to avoid last-minute hitches as they cross their fingers for the sun to shine, report Zhang Haizhou and Cecily Liu from London.

When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life.

So said the English writer and critic Samuel Johnson in 1777. For many people, that sentence neatly encapsulates the allure of Britain's capital city.

Now, 235 years later, the time is rapidly approaching for London to display its attractions to the world once again.

With only four days until the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games, people are expecting more than just a magnificent sporting event from the city, which has hosted the Games twice before, in 1908 and 1948.

Will the rain reign?

What are people most looking forward to? Well, it's definitely not the British weather.

The summer has been a washout so far, with sporting events disrupted the length and breadth of the country.

"Maybe it is time to call upon the sun god Ra, or Phoebus Apollo, or Sol Victrix, or whatever name he now goes by, and lift our hands in chanting entreaty. Come on, O thou fiery spirit that animates the world. Come on out from wherever you are hiding. Shine the light of your countenance upon us, you miserable blighter. Give us poor Britons some kind of a summer - before the entire country dissolves like a sugar cube and sinks into the sea," wrote London Mayor Boris Johnson in the Daily Telegraph newspaper last week.

If the records over the past 30 years are anything to go by, temperatures in July, August and September typically rise to the low 20's Celsius and rain is expected on 10 days of each month, with a typical August seeing almost 50 millimeters over the course of the month.

This year, however, has been particularly rain-swept. April was, for example, the wettest month in the UK for more than 100 years, according to figures from the Met Office, the country's national weather service.

Met Office experts said there is little chance of hot spells in the weeks running up to August 7, just five days before the end of the Games.

Amid fears of the wettest Olympics ever, the events most at risk of being affected include tennis at Wimbledon, BMX biking in Stratford, rowing at Eton Dorney, eventing at Greenwich Park, sailing at Weymouth and beach volleyball in Horse Guards Parade.

Around 40 percent of the seats in the Olympic Stadium are uncovered, including some very expensive spaces closest to the track. In light of this, the Games' organizers - the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games, or LOCOG - have ordered 250,000 ponchos to sell to spectators.