CNN News:500年難遇的災(zāi)難

The term "500-year flood event" basically means there`s a rare 1-in-500 chance that a particular flood would hit in a given year. Southeast Texas has seen two of these 500-year flood events in two months, what a CNN meteorologist described as very bad luck.

“500年一遇的洪水事件”基本上意味著特定一年發(fā)生洪水的幾率只有1/500。但是，在過去兩個(gè)月，德克薩斯州東南部遭遇了兩次五百年不遇的大洪水。請聽CNN氣象學(xué)家為您描述這一慘狀。

Last week, there were record-setting rains in the region. At one point, the city of Brenham got 19 inches of rain in 48 hours. It stopped falling last Friday night, but not before swelling flood waters that killed six people, some of whom were trapped in cars and high water.

上一周，該地區(qū)的洪水量突破歷史記錄。其中，在48小時(shí)，布倫漢姆的降雨量達(dá)到19英尺。直到上周五晚上，才停止降雨。在洪水爆發(fā)導(dǎo)致6人遇難之前，一些人就被困在汽車以及高水位區(qū)而喪生。

The National Weather Service has given several warnings, telling people not to drive through flooded areas and to be careful need riverbanks. Hundreds of homes have been flooded or swept away. Another storm is in the forecast for later this week.

美國國家氣象局發(fā)布警告，警戒人們不要開車駛?cè)牒樗畢^(qū)，同時(shí)要小心河岸地區(qū)。大量房屋被洪水淹沒。預(yù)計(jì)另一場暴風(fēng)雨將在本周晚些來臨。

Today is the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season. It runs from June 1st through November 30th, though forecasters say that these storms can form at any time. This is just when they`re more likely.

今天是大西洋颶風(fēng)季第一天。盡管預(yù)測專家表示，暴風(fēng)雨可能會隨時(shí)到來，但大西洋颶風(fēng)季的持續(xù)時(shí)間是從6月1日直到11月30日。但是一般而言，最近時(shí)間是暴風(fēng)雨常發(fā)季節(jié)。

Predicting how many storms will form in a given season is not an exact science and predictions are often inaccurate. But they give coastal residents, emergency workers and insurance companies an idea of what to look out for.

科學(xué)尚不能精確預(yù)測在特定的季節(jié)暴風(fēng)雨發(fā)生的次數(shù)。但是可以讓沿岸居民、救援人員以及保險(xiǎn)公司做好準(zhǔn)備工作。