每日外刊 |水汽风暴正在威胁人民生命财产安全

背景知识

2021年7月16日至7月20日15时，强降雨造成河南省所辖31个县区140个乡镇287713人受灾。7月19日17时，河南省防汛抗旱指挥部启动防汛Ⅳ级响应，对灾情做了进一步核查统计。暴雨形成的主要原因：一是台风，过来背锅！台风“烟花”虽然距离我国还有小一千公里，却远程控制了河南暴雨。在“烟花”和副热带高压的气流引导下，大量的水汽通过偏东风源源不断地从海上输送到陆地，在河南集结成雨。二是地形原因。偏东气流在河南遇到太行山和伏牛山后，在山前出现辐合抬升，地形导致降雨范围集中，雨势更强。三是大气环流形势稳定，导致降雨持续时间长。

正文阅读

Vapor Storms Are Threatening People and Property

水汽风暴正在威胁人民生命财产安全

The summer of 2021 was a glaring example of what disruptive weather will look like in a warming world. In mid-July, storms in western Germany and Belgium dropped up to eight inches of rain in two days. Floodwaters ripped buildings apart and propelled them through village streets. A week later a year’s worth of rain—more than two feet—fell in China’s Henan province in just three days. Hundreds of thousands of people fled rivers that had burst their banks. In the capital city of Zhengzhou, commuters posted videos showing passengers trapped inside flooding subway cars, straining their heads toward the ceiling to reach the last pocket of air above the quickly rising water.

在全球变暖的大环境下破坏性天气将会是怎样的，2021年夏天就是个明显的例子。7月中旬，德国西部和比利时的暴风雨在两天内带来了高达8英寸的降雨。洪水将被摧毁成碎片的建筑物冲出了乡村街道。一周后，中国河南省降水量超过了2英尺，短短三天内降雨高达一年的降雨量。成千上万的人们在冲破堤岸的洪流中逃生。在省会城市郑州，通勤人员发布的视频显示，乘客们被困在涌入洪水的地铁车厢，在水位迅速上升的过程中，为了吸入最后的氧气，全力将头伸出水面。

In mid-August a sharp kink in the jet stream brought torrential storms to Tennessee that dropped an incredible 17 inches of rain in just 24 hours; catastrophic flooding killed at least 20 people. None of these storm systems were hurricanes or tropical depressions. Soon enough, though, Hurricane Ida swirled into the Gulf of Mexico, the ninth named tropical storm in the year’s busy North Atlantic season. On August 28 it was a Category 1 storm with sustained winds of 85 miles per hour.

8月中旬，空急流轴大幅倾斜给田纳西州带来了暴雨，短短24小时内降雨量达到了令人难以置信的17英寸；灾难性的洪水造成至少20人死亡。这些风暴系统都不属于飓风或热带低气压。很快，飓风艾达进入墨西哥湾地区，这是今年北大西洋飓风季的第九次热带风暴。在8月28日登陆时，它还只是1级飓风，持续风速为每小时85英里。

What all these destructive events have in common is water vapor—lots of it. Water vapor—the gaseous form of H2O—is playing an outsized role in fueling destructive storms and accelerating climate change. As the oceans and atmosphere warm, additional water evaporates into the air. Warmer air, in turn, can hold more of that vapor before it condenses into cloud droplets that can create flooding rains.

所有这些破坏性事件都有一个共同之处就是水蒸气，大量的水蒸气。水蒸气是水的气态形式，在助长破坏性风暴和加速气候变化方面起着巨大的作用。随着海洋和大气变暖，更多的水蒸发到空气中。反之，气温升高会存在更多的水蒸气，使其凝结成云滴，最终形成暴雨。

今日单词

素材来源

文本选自：Scientific American（科学美国人）

作者：Jennifer A. Francis

原文发布时间：27 Oct. 2021

每日美句

Winners do what losers don't want to do.

胜利者做失败者不愿意做的事！