美国国家公共电台 NPR--More rain is forecast for California

More rain is forecast for California

Transcript¹

California continues to get hit with a barrage² of damaging winter storms. But the precipitation is helping³ with the state's longstanding drought.

LEILA FADEL, HOST:

At least 19 people have been killed, and more rain is forecast this week.

(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)

GAVIN NEWSOM: The ground's overwhelmed. What may appear less significant in terms of the rainfall may actually be more significant in terms of the impacts on the ground and the flooding.

FADEL: That was Governor Gavin Newsom speaking after surveying storm damage in central California.

A MART?NEZ, HOST:

NPR's Nathan Rott is in Southern California. Nathan, you're in Ventura. That's about an hour northwest of L.A. What's the situation there now?

NATHAN ROTT, BYLINE⁴: Yeah, we got absolutely dumped on here last night. I drove up the coast a bit before sunset and saw quite a bit of localized flooding in low areas, cars hydroplaning on the road. The beaches up and down the coast here are just trashed with, you know, full trees washed up on the shores or drifting in the waves. I saw that California's Geological Survey says they've now documented more than 400 landslides⁵ since the start of the new year. President Biden declared a major disaster declaration for the state over the weekend, which should free up some federal dollars, which should help with the - what's going to be a pretty major cleanup.

MART?NEZ: So cleanup - is that the phase that California's in now?

ROTT: Yeah. We're supposed to get more rain today up and down the state, but yes. You know, I talked to Chris Outler, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service, yesterday, and here's how he put it.

CHRIS OUTLER: My main message, I guess, would just be hang on a little longer. You know, we got this kind of last storm system here and maybe a little one midweek, but we're just about to the end of the tunnel with a more extended dry period on the way as we get into the later portion of the week.

ROTT: And that last storm system he mentioned is supposed to be more of a typical winter storm, not a drenching⁷ atmospheric⁸ river, these bands of high-level moisture which have been moving water from the Pacific to the coast like we've been seeing over the last couple of weeks. So hopefully that'll allow swollen⁹ rivers to come back down a bit and for things to finally normalize.

MART?NEZ: So, Nathan, any time there's a lot of rain in California, everyone always wonders if it's making a dent⁶ in the drought. Is it?

ROTT: Yeah, it is. So all of this rain has made a serious dent. You know, it's filled some reservoirs. It's built this massive snowpack in the Sierra Nevada. A month ago, more than a third of California was in what the U.S. Drought Monitor was calling extreme drought. As of now, it's less than 1%. That being said, it's important to remember that there's still a lot of winter left, so there's still a chance we could get below average precipitation through the rest of the rainy season. Also, bear in mind, the drought is much larger than just California. We're talking about a multidecade megadrought, the driest period in at least 1,200 years across western North America. And people have been depleting¹⁰ groundwater reservoirs, so it'll take more than a series of extreme storms like we've been seeing for us to dig out. And there's still a longer term question of how best to support tens of millions of people living in a semi-arid landscape as the climate warms.

MART?NEZ: All right. So speaking of climate change, then, do we see its fingerprints¹¹ on these storms?

ROTT: Yeah, we're seeing the kinds of extreme weather whiplash that climate scientists have been warning about for a while - extreme heat, drought, extreme rain. Climate change is really expected to take normal phenomena¹² like these atmospheric rivers, like the drought, and turn up the dial, making them more intense than before. So to answer your question directly, no, it's still too early to say whether this flooding and rain is a result of human-caused climate change. But we can say that this is the type of event that's going to become more common as the world continues to warm.

MART?NEZ: That's NPR's Nathan Rott in Ventura, California. Stay dry, Nate.

ROTT: Hey, thank you. You, too.

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 barrage   

n.火力网，弹幕

参考例句：

• The attack jumped off under cover of a barrage.进攻在炮火的掩护下开始了。
• The fierce artillery barrage destroyed the most part of the city in a few minutes.猛烈的炮火几分钟内便毁灭了这座城市的大部分地区。

3 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

4 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。

5 landslides   

山崩( landslide的名词复数 )； （山坡、悬崖等的）崩塌； 滑坡； （竞选中）一方选票占压倒性多数

参考例句：

• Landslides have cut off many villages in remote areas. 滑坡使边远地区的许多村庄与外界隔绝。
• The storm caused landslides and flooding in Savona. 风暴致使萨沃纳发生塌方和洪灾。

6 dent   

n.凹痕，凹坑；初步进展

参考例句：

• I don't know how it came about but I've got a dent in the rear of my car.我不知道是怎么回事，但我的汽车后部有了一个凹痕。
• That dent is not big enough to be worth hammering out.那个凹陷不大，用不着把它锤平。

7 drenching   

n.湿透v.使湿透( drench的现在分词 )；在某人（某物）上大量使用（某液体）

参考例句：

• A black cloudburst was drenching Siena at midday. 中午，一场天昏地暗的暴风雨在锡耶纳上空倒下来。 来自辞典例句
• A drenching rain poured down and the rising hurricane drove it in sheets along the ground. 一阵倾盆大雨泼下来了，越来越大的狂风把它顺着地面刮成了一片一片的雨幕。 来自辞典例句

8 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。

9 swollen   

adj.肿大的，水涨的；v.使变大，肿胀

参考例句：

• Her legs had got swollen from standing up all day.因为整天站着，她的双腿已经肿了。
• A mosquito had bitten her and her arm had swollen up.蚊子叮了她，她的手臂肿起来了。

10 depleting   

使大大的减少，使空虚( deplete的现在分词 )； 耗尽，使枯竭

参考例句：

• Regulations are outlawing certain refrigerants, such as chlorofluorocarbons, which contain ozone-depleting chemicals. 随后出台的政策禁用了部分制冷剂，如破坏臭氧层的氟氯碳化合物。
• Aging, being a series of continual losses, can be keenly depleting. 老龄化，作为一个系列的连续亏损，可以清楚地消耗。

11 fingerprints   

n.指纹( fingerprint的名词复数 )v.指纹( fingerprint的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Everyone's fingerprints are unique. 每个人的指纹都是独一无二的。
• They wore gloves so as not to leave any fingerprints behind (them). 他们戴着手套，以免留下指纹。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 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。