deadly storm surges and a trail of destruction.

致命的湧流暗潮以及一道毀滅的痕跡

Recent hurricanes have wreaked havoc in the United States.

最近幾回颶風都在美國造成嚴重傷害。

And you might be wondering, how does a hurricane work?

你可能會想知道，颶風如何在各地肆虐？

So, the important thing to understand about hurricanes is that they only form over warm water.

有一點你必須知道，颶風只會在溫暖的水域上方形成

Think of warm water as the fuel to the engine that is a hurricane.

如果颶風是一具引擎，溫水就是它的燃料。

A hurricane forms when warm air over the ocean rises.

當海洋上方的溫暖空氣上升，颶風就可能形成

As that warm air rises, cool air sort of fills in below it,

暖空氣爬升的時候，冷空氣就會開始聚集到下面填補空隙，

kind of creating that cyclonic action.

慢慢形成動態氣旋

At the top, it forms clouds, and those clouds create the rain system that we associate with hurricanes.

空氣團上方，水氣聚集成雲，雲接著就構成降雨系統，造成颶風挾帶的雨勢。

So, many people are wondering, is climate change making hurricanes worse?

因此有許多人開始思考，氣候變遷是否加劇了颶風的危害程度？

Yes.

完全正確

Remember we talked about how warm water is the fuel for a hurricane?

記得我們談到溫熱的水會是颶風的推進燃料嗎？

Because of climate change, the oceans are much warmer than they used to be.

因為氣候變遷，不同地方的海域都變得比以往更溫暖

In recent years, we've seen very powerful hurricanes like Harvey and Florence.

近年來我們經歷過數個更為強大的颶風，像是哈維與佛羅倫斯

And the obvious question is, what do they have in common?

於是浮現出一個顯而易見的問題：他們有什麼共通點？

Both of these hurricanes formed in unusually warm waters.

這兩個颶風的生成地點都在異常溫暖的水域

Hurricane Harvey formed in waters around the Gulf of Mexico that were,

哈維颶風形成的海域是在墨西哥灣附近，

on average,

平均而言，

about 1 degree Celsius warmer than average.

比均溫高上攝氏一度

Florence is being powered by waters that are 2 degrees Celsius warmer than average.

佛羅倫斯颶風則生成於比均溫高上攝氏兩度的海水，

So that's a lot more energy going into the storm.

也因此佛羅倫斯颶風格外強大

The worry with Florence is not just when it hits land, but how long it will stick around, and how far inland that will go.

佛羅倫斯颶風引發的疑慮不只是它的登陸時機，還有它會在陸地上停留多久，以及它會推進內陸多少距離。

So does this mean we're going to have more storms like this?

這一切是否代表我們將會面臨更多像這樣的風暴呢？

The short answer is yes.

簡單來說，沒錯

The long answer is storms like this are even worse.

更糟的是暴風只會越來越強大

There's some talk about potentially raising the hurricane category scale to include a 6 for stronger winds than we currently have.

有些人甚至考慮提升颶風等級，增加第六級的級別來應對比我們現在看到更強烈的颶風

There is some concern or some evidence suggesting that hurricanes are moving further north.

有些揣測甚至證據指出颶風的危害已經開始北移

So that means they're going to be showing up in places that they haven't traditionally existed and, potentially, even in places like Europe.

換言之，他們即將出現在先前根本沒發生過的地方，甚至可能威脅到歐洲大陸

When there's a hurricane, when there's a wildfire,

而當一場颶風、一場森林大火又開始肆虐，

climate change often comes up.

氣候變遷也將接著惡化

But climate change is our new reality.

即使歷時不長，氣候變遷已是事實

And if we don't take steps to mitigate it, we will continue to see powerful, severe hurricanes.

倘若我們未採取措施，想辦法減輕其危害，我們就會持續碰上強大、劇烈的颶風。

And more and more people are going to be put in harm's way.

也會有更多人會被迫面臨種種威脅