The northern-hemisphere winter of 2019-20 was the warmest ever on land

Winter is not coming

原文选自《The Economist》0328期 撰文：CAndY  编辑：猫斯图

The most commonly cited risks of climate change are natural disasters: fiercer wildfires and hurricanes, bigger floods and longer droughts. But one of the most striking recent effects of global warming has been unusually mild weather in many parts of the world.

词汇解析：

cite: vt. 引用；传讯；想起；表彰  cite an example举例；引用一个例子

fiercer, bigger, longer: 形容词比较级，在这里表示程度加深。【拓展】：ever-形容词比较级 表示“越来越…的”，可以替换more and more ever-shorter “越来越短的”。ever与表示持续变化的动词现在分词还可以构成形容词，eg：the ever-worsening illness 日益严重的病情

strike：v. 撞击；罢工；突击n.罢工；抗拒；袭击；殴打  过去式：struck过去分词：stricken

striking：adj. 显著的，突出的，惊人的；打击的；v. 打（strike的ing形式）【拓展】：stricken与名词连用可构成形容词，表示“遭受…的；受…之困的”  eg：poverty-stricken 非常贫困的；可替换poor

The northern-hemisphere winter that ended on March 20th was the second-warmest since records began, and the warmest ever on land. The anomaly was biggest in Europe and Asia, where average temperatures from December to February were 3.2°C (5.8°F) and 3.1°C above the average from 1951-80, and 0.8°C and 0.7°C above those continents’ previous record highs. After a normal autumn, temperatures stayed close to their November levels for months. In Boston, where daily lows in January tend to hover around -6°C, the average minimum this January was 0°C; for Tokyo the figures were 0°C and 5°C. By local standards, the balmiest winter of all was in Russia. Moscow’s average daily low in January was -2°C, far from the customary -13°C.

词汇解析：

anomaly: 英 /əˈnɒməli/ 美/əˈnɑːməli/ n. 异常；不规则；反常事物

balmiest:  balmy的变形 英 /ˈbɑːmi/ 美/ˈbɑːmi/  adj. (指空气)暖和的;温暖的；芳香的；温和的；止痛的

The winter-that-wasn’t of 2019-20 is not yeta new normal. The main factor determining the severity of northern winters is the “Arctic oscillation”: the relative pressure of Arctic and sub-tropical air. When pressure is higher in the Arctic, cold air from the North Pole pushes south, bringing harsh, dry winters to many places. When pressure is higher towards the subtropics, warm air pushes northwards, hemming in cold air around the pole. These two patterns flip back and forth irregularly.

词汇解析：

Arctic oscillation北极震荡：是北极圈内与北纬55°至北极圈之间区域的气压差。造成北半球出现气象颠倒，致使北半球的北美洲、欧洲和亚洲地区遭遇寒冬。

harsh：adj. 严厉的；严酷的；刺耳的；粗糙的；刺目的；丑陋的 harsh terms苛刻的条件hemming：hem的变形  hem in：包围

back and forth：反复地，来回地 【拓展】：back and fill adv. 出尔反尔；前进时帆忽张忽缩

For reasons that are not yetclear, pressure in the sub-tropics this year was much stronger than in the Arctic. And researchers have not yet determined how rising temperatures affect the Arctic oscillation. Until a few years ago, climate models tended to show pressure in the Arctic strengthening, reducing the amount of warming during winter at temperate northern latitudes. The latest models find the reverse.

词汇解析：

yet：have not yet done sth. = have yet to do sth. 尚未；还没有[高频表达]

reverse：v. 反转；撤销；adj. 相反的；背面的；n. 逆向；相反；背面

However, climate change is still responsible for anomalies like this one. At the average global temperature in 1950, a winter this mild was all but impossible. In today’s climate, such reprieves from the cold should occur once every 11years. And if global warming continues on its current trajectory, winters like this year’s could become standard within a few decades.

词汇解析：

all but：（很多人会把它们分开，但这是一个固定短语）表示“几乎”

reprieves：作名词时，表示“缓刑，赦免；暂缓，暂时解救”

trajectory：英 /trəˈdʒektəri/ 美/trəˈdʒektəri/ n. [物] 轨道，轨线；[航][军] 弹道

Mild winters offer benefits. Heating is cheaper, flu seasons are shorter and fewer people die overall. But problems mount as well. Without hard frosts, pests can survive and multiply to attack crops more harshly. Warmer winters are usually wetter, changing snowfall patterns. This can shrink the snowpack that supplies rivers, and cause floods. Even people who bemoan frigid winters may miss them if they vanish.

词汇解析：

mount：v. 增加，爬上；安装，架置；镶嵌，嵌入；准备上演；成立（军队等）同义词：multiplying 【写作句型】：.... are mounting/ multiplying    eg: Worries about unemployment are mounting.

frost: n. 严寒天气，冰冻；霜；冷淡；（非正式）失败； v. 结霜于；结霜；受冻，冻坏；在……上撒糖霜

shrink：v. （使）缩小，（使）收缩；（尤指因恐惧而）退缩，畏缩，回避；（衣服、布料）缩水  n. 收缩；畏缩；（非正式）精神病医生，精神病学家，心理学家

bemoan：（to complain or say that you are not happy about sth）v. 惋惜；叹息

frigid：adj. 寒冷的，严寒的；冷淡的

vanish：v. 消失；突然不见；成为零; 使不见，使消失