VOA慢速英语2020--拉尼娜天气预计将持续到2021年

La Niña Weather Expected to Continue into 2021

The United Nations weather agency¹ says a continuing weather event places some countries at risk of weather-related² problems.

The World Meteorological Organization, or WMO, predicts La Ni?a will continue to affect the world's weather through January. The weather event is expected to bring drier and wetter conditions than normal to different parts of the world.

La Ni?a is a weather pattern that happens in the Pacific Ocean but affects weather around the world. A La Ni?a event happens when ocean surface waters cool along the Pacific coast of the South American tropics³. This takes place about every two to seven years.

The latest predictions show La Ni?a will cause drier than normal conditions in much of East Africa and lead to more rainfall in southern Africa. Central Asia is likely to see below normal rainfall earlier than usual.

The WMO reports some of the Pacific islands and the northern part of South America will see unusual changes in wet weather. These changes in weather patterns can put countries in some parts of the world at greater risk.

Gavin Iley is a humanitarian⁴ expert for the WMO. He told VOA parts of eastern Africa were of special concern. The area is already suffering such problems as locust⁵ insects eating crops. Weather imaging suggests below normal rainfall for a large part of eastern Africa, Iley explained. So that could have a number of effects on places like Somalia.

The WMO said governments can use weather predictions to plan ways to reduce harmful effects on agriculture, health, water resources and disaster supervision⁶. All of these are sensitive to a changing climate.

Maxx Dilley is a director of climate services at the WMO. He said governments can use predictions of La Ni?a to adapt their action plans.

"You can imagine in the agricultural sector⁷ that some crops will do well under wet conditions and others will do better under dry conditions," Dilley said. And there are agricultural supervision methods that can be changed based on whether dry or wet weather is expected.

Dilley said the WMO is trying harder to make its predictions with attention to specific concerns. These include issues like food security⁸ or human health.

Dilley gave one example related to health and disease⁹. He said wet conditions alone do not lead to more cases of dengue fever or malaria¹⁰. Dilley explained that temperature, wet air and vegetation¹¹ create the conditions for mosquito populations to rise.

So, rather than just giving a rainfall prediction, he said, meteorologists will provide disease predictions. The goal is to use the predictions to control dengue fever or malaria.

Words in This Story

meteorological –adj. related to the science that deals with the atmosphere and weather, meteorology

pattern –n. something that happens in a regular or repeated way

tropics –n.(pl.) parts of the world that are near the equator¹² and, therefore, are usually warm

adapt –v. to change in order to deal better with a set of conditions

sector –n. an area of an economy that includes certain industries and jobs

mosquito –n. a small flying insect that bites people and sucks their blood, which sometimes spreads diseases like malaria

1 agency   

n.经办；代理；代理处

参考例句：

• This disease is spread through the agency of insects.这种疾病是通过昆虫媒介传播的。
• He spoke in the person of Xinhua News Agency.他代表新华社讲话。

2 related   

adj.有关系的，有关联的，叙述的，讲述的

参考例句：

• I am not related to him in any way.我和他无任何关系。
• We spent days going through all related reference material.我们花了好多天功夫查阅所有有关的参考资料。

3 tropics   

(名)热带

参考例句：

• The disease is thought to have originated in the tropics. 这种疾病据说起源于热带地区。
• I went to the tropics for the first time last year. 我去年第一次去了热带地区。

4 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

5 locust   

n.蝗虫；洋槐，刺槐

参考例句：

• A locust is a kind of destructive insect.蝗虫是一种害虫。
• This illustration shows a vertical section through the locust.本图所示为蝗虫的纵剖面。

6 supervision   

n.监督，管理

参考例句：

• The work was done under my supervision.这项工作是在我的监督之下完成的。
• The old man's will was executed under the personal supervision of the lawyer.老人的遗嘱是在律师的亲自监督下执行的。

7 sector   

n.部门，部分；防御地段，防区；扇形

参考例句：

• The export sector will aid the economic recovery. 出口产业将促进经济复苏。
• The enemy have attacked the British sector.敌人已进攻英国防区。

8 security   

n.安全，安全感；防护措施；保证(金)，抵押(品)；债券，证券

参考例句：

• A security guard brought him down with a flying tackle.一名保安人员飞身把他抱倒。
• There was tight security at the airport when the President's plane landed.总统的专机降落时，机场的保安措施很严密。

9 disease   

n.疾病，弊端

参考例句：

• The doctors are trying to stamp out the disease.医生正在尽力消灭这种疾病。
• He fought against the disease for a long time.他同疾病做了长时间的斗争。

10 malaria   

n.疟疾

参考例句：

• He had frequent attacks of malaria.他常患疟疾。
• Malaria is a kind of serious malady.疟疾是一种严重的疾病。

11 vegetation   

n.植物，草木，（植物）生长

参考例句：

• As we drove towards the desert,the vegetation became sparse.我们驱车前往沙漠，沿途的草木渐渐变得稀疏。
• The earth bore a thick green mantle of vegetation.大地覆盖着一层厚厚的绿色植物。

12 equator   

n.赤道，（平分球形物体的面的）圆

参考例句：

• Singapore is near the equator.新加坡位于赤道附近。
• The United States is north of the equator.美国位于赤道以北。