嚴 冬Winter Extreme (1)

嚴 冬Winter Extreme (1)

1. Preface 前言

The extremely cold weather in the US usually comes some time before or after Christmas season. Frost, snowstorms, and blizzard usually cripple traffic, causing power failure, and bringing inconvenience, discomfort or even casualties….

美國嚴冬通常在耶誕節前後來前臨。冰霜、風雪與大吹雪

常癱瘓交通、導致停電、上活上的不便或甚至死亡….

Snowstorms have been very common for most of the Americans except for Californians, Hawaiians, or people living in few other warmer states. But during the past week there has been a big snow storm or blizzard ravaging northwestern coast USA, Greater Seattle included. It might be an exception. Though the news media kept broadcasting on TV and radio stations previously for days, people do not pay much attention to it for snowing is taken for granted in winter with them. 

在美國除了住在加卅、夏威夷和其他少數較暖和州的人們以外，暴風雪對大多數的美國人而言是非常普遍。可是過去一個禮拜來，有一塲大的暴風雪肆虐了美國西北岸，包括整個大西雅圖地區。也許是件例外的情形。雖然電視與無線電等新聞媒體，不斷報導這個消息，但是人們並不太注意它，因為他們認為冬天下雪是理所當然的事。

   Then a few days ago, (approximately on Jan. 11, 2012) the blizzard did come as forecasted, raging the area ruthlessly.  I think most of the people seemed to be well prepared for it. They had been well stuffing their refrigerators with provisions.  Now I begin to realize why most of the family has two freezers in their home; one in the kitchen, the other in the garage. Based on preliminary forecast, there would be snow falling as deep as 1-4 inches. But as days went on, the snowfall was reaching 3-6 inches, worst of all, the temperature kept falling (below 26 degrees Fahrenheit), the fallen snow piling up over 8 inches in height in one single day, covering lawn, trails, and the whole street.

   若干天以前(約2012年1月11日) ，如早先預測，大風雪來臨，並無情地襲擊了整個地區。我認為大多數的人們早有準備。他們的冰箱裡早已塞滿了食物。現在我終於明白為何大部分家庭都備有兩台電冰箱，一台放廚房，另一台放車庫間。依初期預測，降雪量將深達一至四吋。但隨著幾天過去，降雪量竟達三至六吋。更嚴重的是氣温持續下降(到華氏26度)，而一天內，降雪達8吋之深，而覆蓋了草地、小徑與整條街道。

   Thanks to the media, people were constantly being updated about the latest weather reports and forecasts. In the beginning, there was news regarding school closures, first just in one or two counties, and then the closure extended to most of the counties in Washington State.  Hopefully, this was a bad condition, and yet, who knows the worst was yet to come.  When announcing such news, the anchor-man or anchor-woman did not wear on their faces any serious expression, sarcastically.  However, exactly on the fourth day of snow falling consecutively, there came the news that there was “power failure” in one or two counties, and then the number of people who lost “power” came to be more than 160,000. Some of highways, trails, air terminals and passes are closed for safety, but there was no immediate danger of avalanches. Because few of the residents live close to the hill or the foot of the mountains. One of the main reasons that brought about the “power failure” was that there are far too many trees in WA State. There has been very strict stringency/control on tree-cutting in the State. On the one hand, the state deserves the name of “state of evergreen”, which (the greenness) adds to its beauty in summer; on the other hand, when trees are overloaded with snow in summer, they fall down, thus damaging the power line, and “power failure” came about. 

  

   幸經媒體報導，人們對氣候狀况和預測，能不停地掌握最新的消息。起先報導了一兩個縣的學校停課，後來擴及到整個華盛頓州大部分的學校。當時，我們希望它是一個不好的情况而已，誰知道最糟的情况還在後頭。當宣佈此項消息時，諷刺的是，新聞男女主播們並未有嚴肅的表情。儘管如此，就在連續降雪整整第四天時，消息傳來有一兩個縣『停電』，後來停電人口竟達16萬人。為了安全起見，有些公路、小路、機塲和隘口封閉。但尚無立即雪崩的危險。因為住在山的附近或在山脚下的居民不多。導致停電的主要理由之一是華盛頓州的樹林太多了。此州嚴格規定不准亂砍樹木。一方面華州享有『常綠之州』的盛名，這些綠油油的樹林增加了它在夏季的美景，而另一方面，樹木卻因積雪過多而倒下，壓垮了輸電線，產生電力中斷。

  

 中英文：Justin Lai

12/06/2013

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