新西兰英语 467 The weather

 　　Snow finally came to the mountains and ski fields in both the North Island and the South Island. Queenstown had their winter festival two weeks ago without snow. The ski field was not open. Now the snow is on the mountain and in the town.

　　On the other hand, people living on the East Coast of the North and South Islands had mild weather and strong winds this weekend. Napier on the East Coast had 18 degrees today. Greymouth on the West Coast had heavy rain which turned to snow on the mountains. There was a strong westerly wind over most of the country.

　　The difference in weather between the far north and the far south is because New Zealand is such a long country. The far north is at latitude¹ 35 degrees and the far south is at 46 degrees. There are mountains in the middle of both islands which are usually snow covered in the winter.

　　The stormy weather brought a tornado² to the Kapiti coast, north of Wellington, yesterday. A tornado is a funnel³ of wind which drops down for a short distance and can cause terrible damage in a few seconds. This tornado blew the roof off some houses, destroyed a caravan⁴ and broke trees which fell onto cars. Some people were injured but nobody was killed.

　　The MetService said the stormy weather will continue for the next few days.

　　Listen to May 3rd 2011 to hear about a tornado north of Auckland.

1 latitude   

n.纬度，行动或言论的自由(范围)，(pl.)地区

参考例句：

• The latitude of the island is 20 degrees south.该岛的纬度是南纬20度。
• The two cities are at approximately the same latitude.这两个城市差不多位于同一纬度上。

2 tornado   

n.飓风，龙卷风

参考例句：

• A tornado whirled into the town last week.龙卷风上周袭击了这座城市。
• The approaching tornado struck awe in our hearts.正在逼近的龙卷风使我们惊恐万分。

3 funnel   

n.漏斗；烟囱；v.汇集

参考例句：

• He poured the petrol into the car through a funnel.他用一个漏斗把汽油灌入汽车。
• I like the ship with a yellow funnel.我喜欢那条有黄烟囱的船。

4 caravan   

n.大蓬车；活动房屋

参考例句：

• The community adviser gave us a caravan to live in.社区顾问给了我们一间活动住房栖身。
• Geoff connected the caravan to the car.杰弗把旅行用的住屋拖车挂在汽车上。