美国国家公共电台 NPR--多个州正在建立自己的天气监测网络

Many states are setting up their own extensive weather monitoring networks

Transcript¹

Forecasters say with a rise in extreme weather disasters, the states' monitoring networks are key to saving lives.

RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

After extreme weather, people sometimes ask - why weren't there better warnings? A key part of the answer is a lack of data, and states are realizing that can prove deadly, as the warming climate fuels more disasters.

Caroline Eggers of member station WPLN in Nashville reports.

CAROLINE EGGERS, BYLINE²: Last August, in Waverly, Tennessee, Tammy Shaw and her granddaughter, Hope Collier, were trying to escape when water started spilling under their door. Within minutes, it was up to the ceiling.

TAMMY SHAW: We were trapped in there - in that water.

EGGERS: Then the flood dragged Collier from inside her home to a half mile away. For two hours, her family thought she was dead.

HOPE COLLIER: Everyone was calling everybody, asking if I was OK, and it was just - it was bad.

EGGERS: Twenty people did die in the flooding. That morning, the National Weather Service in Nashville issued what Waverly residents say was only a vague warning about what would become a record-shattering nearly 21 inches of rain. That's because forecasters only had a limited picture of what was happening - one that relied heavily on radar³, looking at clouds thousands of feet in the air. But just north of here, in Kentucky, weather experts say they have a better way.

STUART FOSTER: There aren't too many programs out there that you can genuinely say benefit everybody.

EGGERS: That's retired⁴ state climatologist Stuart Foster, and he's talking about the Kentucky Mesonet. It's a grid⁵ of what will soon be nearly 100 weather monitoring stations across the state. He's showing me the first one built. It looks like a few brutalist sculptures in an open field. But up close, you'd see little weather gadgets⁶. There are anemometers for wind speed, a gauge⁷ for rainfall rates...

FOSTER: Then, right on top of here is a pyranometer for monitoring solar radiation.

EGGERS: The system provides a more complete picture of even complicated weather phenomena⁸. For example, the station monitors temperature from underground to 30 feet up to catch when a layer of warm air is trapping cold air below it.

FOSTER: Which is important for agriculture and fog formation and icing and those kinds of things.

EGGERS: When it comes to extreme weather, mesonets give forecasters critical ground-level data in real time. When tornadoes⁹ tore through eight states in December, the Kentucky Mesonet was sending data to the National Weather Service every three seconds. John Gordon, Louisville's head meteorologist, says his office would be lost without it.

JOHN GORDON: Having a mesonet will save lives. Having that data allows us to better warn the citizens - to put out more precise warnings.

EGGERS: Also important - Gordon says it shows when warnings are not needed.

GORDON: You know, dear God, I don't want to be the boy who cried wolf.

EGGERS: Mesonets are often built in direct response to severe weather, as in New York after Hurricane Sandy. But there's no direct federal funding for mesonets. It's up to each state to figure it out, and 15 states still don't have them. That includes Tennessee, which just opened an unfunded climate office last year. The state's new climatologist, Andrew Joyner, has made a mesonet his biggest priority.

ANDREW JOYNER: I'm sure we've missed quite a few high-wind and high-rain events across the state simply because we don't have stations in those locations.

EGGERS: He's now looking for grants so Tennessee forecasters won't be flying partly blind during future extreme weather.

For NPR News, I'm Caroline Eggers in Nashville.

1 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。

2 byline   

n.署名；v.署名

参考例句：

• His byline was absent as well.他的署名也不见了。
• We wish to thank the author of this article which carries no byline.我们要感谢这篇文章的那位没有署名的作者。

3 radar   

n.雷达，无线电探测器

参考例句：

• They are following the flight of an aircraft by radar.他们正在用雷达追踪一架飞机的飞行。
• Enemy ships were detected on the radar.敌舰的影像已显现在雷达上。

4 retired   

adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的

参考例句：

• The old man retired to the country for rest.这位老人下乡休息去了。
• Many retired people take up gardening as a hobby.许多退休的人都以从事园艺为嗜好。

5 grid   

n.高压输电线路网；地图坐标方格；格栅

参考例句：

• In this application,the carrier is used to encapsulate the grid.在这种情况下，要用载体把格栅密封起来。
• Modern gauges consist of metal foil in the form of a grid.现代应变仪则由网格形式的金属片组成。

6 gadgets   

n.小机械，小器具（ gadget的名词复数 ）

参考例句：

• Certainly. The idea is not to have a house full of gadgets. 当然。设想是房屋不再充满小配件。 来自超越目标英语 第4册
• This meant more gadgets and more experiments. 这意味着要设计出更多的装置，做更多的实验。 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史

7 gauge   

v.精确计量；估计；n.标准度量；计量器

参考例句：

• Can you gauge what her reaction is likely to be?你能揣测她的反应可能是什么吗？
• It's difficult to gauge one's character.要判断一个人的品格是很困难的。

8 phenomena   

n.现象

参考例句：

• Ade couldn't relate the phenomena with any theory he knew.艾德无法用他所知道的任何理论来解释这种现象。
• The object of these experiments was to find the connection,if any,between the two phenomena.这些实验的目的就是探索这两种现象之间的联系，如果存在着任何联系的话。

9 tornadoes   

n.龙卷风，旋风( tornado的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Tornadoes, severe earthquakes, and plagues create wide spread havoc. 龙卷风、大地震和瘟疫成普遍的毁坏。 来自互联网
• Meteorologists are at odds over the working of tornadoes. 气象学者对龙卷风的运动方式看法不一。 来自互联网