美国国家公共电台 NPR Climate Change Drives Bigger, Wetter Storms — Storms Like Florence

 

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

Hurricane Florence, which is approaching the Carolinas, is another strong storm. Hurricanes are measured by wind. This one has had recorded speeds of up to 140 miles per hour. But whenever it makes landfall, the real danger may be rain. That's what happened with Hurricane Harvey last year in Texas. NPR's Rebecca Hersher has covered that storm's devastating¹ aftermath and now is watching the approaching storm.

REBECCA HERSHER, BYLINE²: James Kossin is a climate scientist who specifically studies hurricanes, typhoons - big, scary, swirly³ storms. And so far, this hurricane season has been pretty quiet - until now.

JAMES KOSSIN: There's so many hurricanes going on right now; it's almost hard to keep up.

HERSHER: There's Hurricane Olivia in the Pacific, two more storms brewing⁴ off West Africa, and then, there's Hurricane Florence, which is projected to hit the East Coast later this week.

KOSSIN: This is a incredibly dangerous storm.

HERSHER: One reason it's dangerous - it's not moving very quickly.

KOSSIN: The storm could be over North Carolina and traveling incredibly slowly on the order of, you know, just a few miles per hour, even, which is getting to the kind of speeds that we saw with Harvey.

HERSHER: Last year, Hurricane Harvey stalled around Houston. It just wouldn't move for days, so it kept raining and raining - 60 inches in some places. Earlier this year, Kossin published a study that shows storms are moving more slowly around the globe. One reason may be that climate change is causing the big currents of wind that hurricanes ride on to slow down. If Florence stalls over the East Coast, it would be another example of that slowing trend. Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric⁵ Research in Boulder⁶, Colo., says climate change also affects another feature of Florence - it's enormous.

KEVIN TRENBERTH: We have global warming, and so, this actually makes these storms bigger and more intense.

HERSHER: How? Well, we - all of us - burn fossil fuels, produce greenhouse gases that trap heat.

TRENBERTH: And so there's more heat in the system. And so the oceans are warmer now than they've ever been, and they're going steadily⁷ upwards⁸.

HERSHER: Warm oceans are like a steaming bath, and evaporating moisture from that bath is the fuel for storms. So hotter oceans mean bigger, wetter hurricanes. In fact, earlier this year, Trenberth and colleagues published a study that found record-high temperatures in the Gulf⁹ of Mexico, as high as 86 degrees Fahrenheit¹⁰, helped make Harvey into the rain monster it became. The amount of water that evaporated up into the hurricane as it formed matched the amount that fell all over Texas. And Trenberth emphasizes that in a storm like Harvey or Florence, the most dangerous thing is rain.

TRENBERTH: People should take these warnings very seriously because the risk of flooding, in particular, in some areas is very real.

HERSHER: Kossin agrees.

KOSSIN: The freshwater flooding poses our greatest risk to life. And this idea of a - first of all, of a very strong hurricane making landfall is always going to be very, very bad news. But then, to combine that with the potential for it to sort of stall out once it gets over land - that's a very frightening prospect¹¹ to think about that.

HERSHER: Rebecca Hersher, NPR News.

(SOUNDBITE OF COOPER SAMS' "ADRIFT")

1 devastating   

adj.毁灭性的，令人震惊的，强有力的

参考例句：

• It is the most devastating storm in 20 years.这是20年来破坏性最大的风暴。
• Affairs do have a devastating effect on marriages.婚外情确实会对婚姻造成毁灭性的影响。

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 swirly   

成涡旋形的

参考例句：

• There is now a black swirly animation when a spell is resisted. 当法术被抵抗的时候有一个黑色旋涡形的效果。 来自互联网

4 brewing   

n. 酿造, 一次酿造的量 动词brew的现在分词形式

参考例句：

• It was obvious that a big storm was brewing up. 很显然，一场暴风雨正在酝酿中。
• She set about brewing some herb tea. 她动手泡一些药茶。

5 atmospheric   

adj.大气的，空气的；大气层的；大气所引起的

参考例句：

• Sea surface temperatures and atmospheric circulation are strongly coupled.海洋表面温度与大气环流是密切相关的。
• Clouds return radiant energy to the surface primarily via the atmospheric window.云主要通过大气窗区向地表辐射能量。

6 boulder   

n.巨砾；卵石，圆石

参考例句：

• We all heaved together and removed the boulder.大家一齐用劲，把大石头搬开了。
• He stepped clear of the boulder.他从大石头后面走了出来。

7 steadily   

adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地

参考例句：

• The scope of man's use of natural resources will steadily grow.人类利用自然资源的广度将日益扩大。
• Our educational reform was steadily led onto the correct path.我们的教学改革慢慢上轨道了。

8 upwards   

adv.向上，在更高处...以上

参考例句：

• The trend of prices is still upwards.物价的趋向是仍在上涨。
• The smoke rose straight upwards.烟一直向上升。

9 gulf   

n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂

参考例句：

• The gulf between the two leaders cannot be bridged.两位领导人之间的鸿沟难以跨越。
• There is a gulf between the two cities.这两座城市间有个海湾。

10 Fahrenheit   

n./adj.华氏温度；华氏温度计(的)

参考例句：

• He was asked for the boiling point of water in Fahrenheit.他被问到水的沸点是华氏多少度。
• The thermometer reads 80 degrees Fahrenheit.寒暑表指出华氏80度。

11 prospect   

n.前景，前途；景色，视野

参考例句：

• This state of things holds out a cheerful prospect.事态呈现出可喜的前景。
• The prospect became more evident.前景变得更加明朗了。