[ti:Study Finds Climate Change Added More Rain to Hurricane Ian] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:01.04]Hurricane Ian is heading toward the American state of South Carolina. [00:07.04]The powerful ocean storm has already [00:10.88]left behind a path of destruction, [00:13.84]from Florida to the island nation of Cuba. [00:18.80]In Cuba, the hurricane knocked out electricity [00:22.96]across the whole island on Tuesday. [00:27.68]Two days later, only 10 percent of power [00:31.80]in the capital city of Havana was repaired. [00:36.92]Officials said at least three people died from the storm. [00:43.12]Officials still do not know the full extent of the damage. [00:49.60]The hurricane became even stronger as it traveled [00:53.96]across the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico toward Florida. [01:00.88]There, the storm destroyed properties, [01:04.40]trapped people in flooded areas and knocked out power [01:09.28]to 2.6 million homes and businesses. [01:14.88]At least six people in the state died from the storm. [01:20.28]U.S. President Joe Biden said Thursday [01:23.84]that Ian may be the "deadliest hurricane in Florida's history." [01:30.60]Immediately after the storm, scientists released a study [01:35.76]saying that climate change might have added [01:39.68]at least 10 percent more rain to the hurricane. [01:45.24]The study compared actual rainfall during Hurricane Ian [01:50.24]to 20 different computer models of storms [01:54.56]that are similar in size and strength. [01:59.12]The models were created in an environment [02:02.68]with no human-caused climate change. [02:08.04]"The real storm was 10 percent wetter [02:11.56]than the storm that might have been," [02:14.28]said Michael Wehner of Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. [02:20.12]The climate scientist is the study's co-writer. [02:25.68]The latest study has not yet been examined by outside scientists. [02:32.68]Wehner and atmospheric scientist Kevin Reed [02:37.00]published a study in Nature Communications earlier this year [02:42.36]looking at the hurricanes of 2020. [02:47.08]They found that during the hurricanes' rainiest three-hour periods, [02:52.84]they were more than 10 percent wetter than in a world [02:57.44]without greenhouse gases trapping heat. [03:01.92]Wehner and Reed applied the same scientifically [03:06.24]accepted method to study Hurricane Ian. [03:11.48]A long-time rule of physics is that [03:14.92]for every extra degree Celsius of warmth, [03:19.24]the air in the atmosphere can hold 7 percent more water. [03:26.24]This week the Gulf of Mexico was 0.8 degrees warmer than normal, [03:33.68]which should have meant about 5 percent more rain. [03:39.48]The study found Ian dropped two times the expected amount, [03:45.20]or 10 percent more rain in Florida. [03:50.40]Reed said 10 percent may not sound like a lot. [03:55.48]But that 10 percent means an additional 5 centimeters of rain [04:02.16]fell in addition to the 50 centimeters that came down in Florida. [04:09.56]Kerry Emanuel is a hurricane researcher [04:13.64]from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. [04:18.84]He said that, in general, a warmer world [04:23.00]does make storms rainier. [04:27.08]But he said he wants to avoid [04:30.32]coming to conclusions about individual storms. [04:35.96]"This business above very, very heavy rain [04:40.00]is something we've expected to see [04:42.52]because of climate change," Emanuel said. [04:47.16]"We'll see more storms like Ian." [04:50.32]I'm Dorothy Gundy. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM