天气预报员呼吁更好的飓风预报系统

Weather Forecasters Call for Better Hurricane Prediction Tools

天气预报员呼吁更好的飓风预报系统

 

With the American Gulf¹ Coast still reeling from the devastation² of Hurricane Katrina and bracing³ for the wrath⁴ of a second monster hurricane this weekend, experts told a Senate hearing that new storm forecasting tools could help save lives and property.

 

South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint opened the hearing by reading a statement issued by the New Orleans Weather Forecast Office 20 hours before Hurricane Katrina hit the city. It was marked Urgent.

 

Jim DeMint: Most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks, perhaps longer, the vast majority of trees will be snapped or uprooted⁶. Power outages will last for weeks as most power poles will be down and transformers destroyed. Water shortages will make human suffering incredible by modern standards.

 

The next few days bore out the deadly accuracy of that forecast.

 

National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield told Louisiana Senator David Vitter that he called the governors of Gulf Coast states to warm them of impending⁷ danger.

 

Max Mayfield: Politicians can be a little isolated⁸ and I just wanted to make absolutely sure that they understood how serious this was. People ask me when we really became concerned about the flooding in New Orleans, and the answer to that is decades ago, this didn't just happen with Katrina. Every previous director of the National Hurricane Center before me, they have all been united in saying that the greatest potential for the nightmare scenario⁹ and the loss of life is in that southeast Louisiana area.

 

Senators expressed frustration¹⁰ that emergency preparations for Katrina were delayed and that lives and property were unnecessarily lost. But assigning blame was not the purpose of the hearing.

 

Instead, senators questioned the experts about the science of hurricane prediction, and why monster storms like Katrina seem to be striking the U.S. with increased frequency.

 

National Hurricane Director Max Mayfield was asked whether global warming might be to blame. Mr. Mayfield reminded the senators that hurricanes run in cycles, with active and inactive periods.

 

Max Mayfield: Without invoking¹¹ global warming, I think the natural variability alone is what this can be attributed to, I think that the important thing here is that even without invoking global warming we need to make sure that we get our country prepared for what we think will be another 10 or 20 years of active (increased) hurricane activity.

 

Weather forecasters use an arsenal¹² of tools -- satellites, coastal¹³ radar¹⁴, weather buoys¹⁶ and research aircraft -- to make their predictions. Marc Levitan directs the Hurricane Center at Louisiana State University. He says forecasters must go beyond storm tracking to predict the human consequences of hurricanes.

 

Marc Levitan: What will be the number of buildings flooded? What will be the number of casualties? Number of rescues needed? I wish to God that I would have been able to brief that we needed 20,000 helicopter rescues, that we needed all these medical evacuations, but the state of the science is not there yet. And, we desperately¹⁷ need to move ahead. If we could have briefed that, then maybe that would have helped the response get rolling a little bit faster.

 

Mr. Levitan and other witnesses at the hearing said the scale used to rank the strength of hurricanes must be upgraded to better reflect the storms' destructive potential. The new scale would include such factors as wind, storm surge, rainfall, inland flooding and storm size, and would provide emergency planners with a better grasp of the damage a hurricane is likely to inflict¹⁸.

 

I’m Rosanne Skirble.

 

注释：

wrath [rC:W] n. 愤怒

monster [5mCnstE] n. 怪物

uninhabitable [5Qnin5hAbitEbl] adj. 不适于人居住的

snap [snAp] v. 突然折断

uproot⁵ [Qp5ru:t] vt. 连根拔起

forecast [5fC:kB:st] n. 预测，预报

impending [im5pendiN] adj. 即将发生的，逼近的

scenario [si5nB:riEu] n. 情景，场面

invoke¹⁹ [in5vEuk] v. 引用

radar [5reidE] n. 雷达

buoy¹⁵ [bCi] n. 浮标，浮筒

casualty [5kAVjuElti] n. 伤亡

helicopter [5helikRptE(r)] n. 直升机

1 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。

2 devastation   

n.毁坏；荒废；极度震惊或悲伤

参考例句：

• The bomb caused widespread devastation. 炸弹造成大面积破坏。
• There was devastation on every side. 到处都是破坏的创伤。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 bracing   

adj.令人振奋的

参考例句：

• The country is bracing itself for the threatened enemy invasion. 这个国家正准备奋起抵抗敌人的入侵威胁。
• The atmosphere in the new government was bracing. 新政府的气氛是令人振奋的。

4 wrath   

n.愤怒，愤慨，暴怒

参考例句：

• His silence marked his wrath. 他的沉默表明了他的愤怒。
• The wrath of the people is now aroused. 人们被激怒了。

5 uproot   

v.连根拔起，拔除；根除，灭绝；赶出家园，被迫移开

参考例句：

• The family decided to uproot themselves and emigrate to Australia.他们全家决定离开故土，移居澳大利亚。
• The trunk of an elephant is powerful enough to uproot trees.大象的长鼻强壮得足以将树木连根拔起。

6 uprooted   

v.把（某物）连根拔起( uproot的过去式和过去分词 )；根除；赶走；把…赶出家园

参考例句：

• Many people were uprooted from their homes by the flood. 水灾令许多人背井离乡。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The hurricane blew with such force that trees were uprooted. 飓风强烈地刮着，树都被连根拔起了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 impending   

a.imminent, about to come or happen

参考例句：

• Against a background of impending famine, heavy fighting took place. 即将发生饥荒之时，严重的战乱爆发了。
• The king convoke parliament to cope with the impending danger. 国王召开国会以应付迫近眉睫的危险。

8 isolated   

adj.与世隔绝的

参考例句：

• His bad behaviour was just an isolated incident. 他的不良行为只是个别事件。
• Patients with the disease should be isolated. 这种病的患者应予以隔离。

9 scenario   

n.剧本，脚本；概要

参考例句：

• But the birth scenario is not completely accurate.然而分娩脚本并非完全准确的。
• This is a totally different scenario.这是完全不同的剧本。

10 frustration   

n.挫折，失败，失效，落空

参考例句：

• He had to fight back tears of frustration.他不得不强忍住失意的泪水。
• He beat his hands on the steering wheel in frustration.他沮丧地用手打了几下方向盘。

11 invoking   

v.援引( invoke的现在分词 )；行使（权利等）；祈求救助；恳求

参考例句：

• You can customise the behavior of the Asynchronous Server and hence re-brand it by defining your own command set for invoking services. 通过定义自己调用服务的命令集，您可以定制自定义异步服务器的行为，通过为调用服务定义自己的命令集从而对它重新标记。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• You can customize the behavior of the Asynchronous Server and hence re-brand it by defining your own command set for invoking services. 通过定义自己调用服务的命令集，您可以定制自定义异步服务器的行为，通过为调用服务定义自己的命令集从而对它重新标记。 来自辞典例句

12 arsenal   

n.兵工厂，军械库

参考例句：

• Even the workers at the arsenal have got a secret organization.兵工厂工人暗中也有组织。
• We must be the great arsenal of democracy.我们必须成为民主的大军火库。

13 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

14 radar   

n.雷达，无线电探测器

参考例句：

• They are following the flight of an aircraft by radar.他们正在用雷达追踪一架飞机的飞行。
• Enemy ships were detected on the radar.敌舰的影像已显现在雷达上。

15 buoy   

n.浮标；救生圈；v.支持，鼓励

参考例句：

• The party did little to buoy up her spirits.这次聚会并没有让她振作多少。
• The buoy floated back and forth in the shallow water.这个浮标在浅水里漂来漂去。

16 buoys   

n.浮标( buoy的名词复数 )；航标；救生圈；救生衣v.使浮起( buoy的第三人称单数 )；支持；为…设浮标；振奋…的精神

参考例句：

• The channel is marked by buoys. 航道有浮标表示。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Often they mark the path with buoys. 他们常常用浮标作为航道的标志。 来自辞典例句

17 desperately   

adv.极度渴望地，绝望地，孤注一掷地

参考例句：

• He was desperately seeking a way to see her again.他正拼命想办法再见她一面。
• He longed desperately to be back at home.他非常渴望回家。

18 inflict   

vt.(on)把…强加给，使遭受，使承担

参考例句：

• Don't inflict your ideas on me.不要把你的想法强加于我。
• Don't inflict damage on any person.不要伤害任何人。

19 invoke   

v.求助于(神、法律)；恳求，乞求

参考例句：

• Let us invoke the blessings of peace.让我们祈求和平之福。
• I hope I'll never have to invoke this clause and lodge a claim with you.我希望我永远不会使用这个条款向你们索赔。