美国国家公共电台 NPR--California has been experiencing intense weather. Is this the new normal?

California has been experiencing intense weather. Is this the new normal?

Transcript¹

NPR's Steve Inskeep asks climate scientist Noah Diffenbaugh of Stanford University about the wild weather in California this year.

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

We have a long-range weather forecast for California. Weeks of storms have soaked the state, of course, without quite ending a long-term drought. The atmospheric² rivers, as they're called, have been enough to bring hurricane-level winds, snow on the Hollywood sign, even a couple of tornadoes³. At least five people were killed in the most recent wave of storms. We've called Noah Diffenbaugh, who's a climate scientist at Stanford University.

Welcome, sir.

NOAH DIFFENBAUGH: Thanks for having me.

INSKEEP: How's the weather?

DIFFENBAUGH: It's been stormy. This week was pretty wild on campus here and throughout the Bay Area, and, yeah...

INSKEEP: Meaning that you need the coat. You can't - you're getting wet.

DIFFENBAUGH: Yeah, we got really wet.

INSKEEP: OK. Is there reason to expect that this is what's going to happen in California from now on, this is going to happen all the time?

DIFFENBAUGH: Yeah. This is really consistent with our understanding of climate change. It was predicted way back in the 1980s that global warming would cause California to have, you know, more severe, protracted⁴, hot, dry periods punctuated⁵ by extreme wet conditions. And that's exactly what's happened. And it's exactly what we're experiencing now.

INSKEEP: I'm interested that you say punctuated, meaning we are now in a period of these atmospheric rivers, which we've described in this program, bringing more and more moisture in off the Pacific. You're thinking that's going to stop at some point, and there'll be another desperate drought situation?

DIFFENBAUGH: Yeah. So if we look at the past decade or so, we had a record-setting drought and then really wet conditions. You might remember the Oroville Dam crisis from about five or six years ago. Then following that, we had another historic record-setting drought, and now, you know, that's being interrupted by what we're experiencing this winter. So, you know, this is, you know, a pattern that that we've been living through. And it's, again, very consistent with what our understanding is of how global warming should affect climate here in the region.

INSKEEP: We have reported in the past on the chances of a megastorm, which - I get the impression that would be something even worse than what you're experiencing this winter. What are the odds⁶ of that?

DIFFENBAUGH: Well, so we know that in California's history, when many of these atmospheric rivers come in succession, that it's caused extremely widespread flooding in the state. And the concern with global warming is that, you know, now we're in a climate where there is more moisture in the atmosphere. The storms that are happening are warmer. They're producing, you know, more rain relative to snow. That means more runoff when they happen. And so the concern is that if we get, even by bad luck, another one of these really long runs of atmospheric rivers, that the amount of flooding that's produced could be even more than what we know happened back in the 1800s.

INSKEEP: Knowing the science and the history that you do, as you drive around your native state, as you look around at the roads, at the houses, at the landscape, do you think that California is built for this change of weather to survive it, to endure it?

DIFFENBAUGH: Well, it's clear that here in California, we have a water system and a, you know, disaster risk management system that was designed and built in an old climate. You know, our water system is - you know, goes back 50, 100 years. Our legal rights for water go back a century. And we're now living in a new climate. We're living in a climate that's different than the one that our really sophisticated systems were designed and built for. And the question is, you know, how do we not just catch up with the climate change that's already happened, but how do we leapfrog ahead to the continued climate change that we know is going to happen in the future?

INSKEEP: OK. It's not that the climate is changing. It has already changed. Mr. Diffenbaugh, thanks so much.

DIFFENBAUGH: Thanks for having me.

INSKEEP: Noah Diffenbaugh is a climate scientist at Stanford University.

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 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。

3 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

4 protracted   

adj.拖延的；延长的v.拖延“protract”的过去式和过去分词

参考例句：

• The war was protracted for four years. 战争拖延了四年。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We won victory through protracted struggle. 经过长期的斗争，我们取得了胜利。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 punctuated   

v.（在文字中）加标点符号，加标点( punctuate的过去式和过去分词 )；不时打断某事物

参考例句：

• Her speech was punctuated by bursts of applause. 她的讲演不时被阵阵掌声打断。
• The audience punctuated his speech by outbursts of applause. 听众不时以阵阵掌声打断他的讲话。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 odds   

n.让步，机率，可能性，比率；胜败优劣之别

参考例句：

• The odds are 5 to 1 that she will win.她获胜的机会是五比一。
• Do you know the odds of winning the lottery once?你知道赢得一次彩票的几率多大吗？