In 1964, at the Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria, a lack of snow threatened the Games. It was the mildest Austrian February in decades, and thousands of Austrian troops were called into action to make sure that the Games could go on. The soldiers went into the mountains and carved thousands of ice blocks to transport to the luge and bobsled runs. They also carted over 25,000 tons of snow to the ski courses. Since the 1980s artificial snow machines have been used by nations hosting the Winter Olympics. According to recent studies, the average February temperature at the Winter Games has been slowly climbing. Approximately 500 snow guns were set up in advance of the 2014 Olympics in Sochi.