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Yet nine months after the IOC and organizers in Tokyo agreed to postpone the 2020 Summer Games for one year,
the level of uncertainty
surrounding the event
has barely waned
, even as hopes for a successful Olympics have never been higher.
然而，在国际奥委会和东京主办方做出决定，将2020年夏季奥运会推迟一年举办的九个月之后，即使人们对于成功举办奥运会的期盼空前强烈，这一赛事的不确定性也并没有消减多少。
1.yet: despite what has just been said
2.wane: to become gradually weaker or less important
wax and wane:to increase then decrease in strength, importance, etc. over a period of time（月有阴晴圆缺）
温室气体增多除了会导致全球气候变暖外，还会造成降雨量减少、干旱等极端天气。
Droughts
conjure
images of vast expanses of hard, cracked soil and
parch
ed
plants, but new research suggests that disastrous dry spells can develop over the wettest place of all: the ocean. Low-
moisture
air masses sometimes form and migrate thousands of kilometers over the sea, similar to the way hurricanes behave.
干旱会让人联想到大片土地坚硬、龟裂、植物枯萎的景象，但新的研究表明，最潮湿的地方——海洋——可能会出现制造灾难性的干旱情况。海面上有时候会形成低湿度气团，这些气团移动数千公里，类似于飓风的活动方式。
These dry-air regions are less coherent, changing shape as they develop, however, and they move much slower. Some take more than half a year before they hit land, where they can destroy crops and threaten water security. Yet the long travel time means forecasters might be able to predict when this newly recognized type of drought will impact
key region
s
, such as the western U.S.
然而，这些干燥气团不那么连贯，会随着它们的移动而改变形状，而且移动速度也会更慢。有些花了半年多的时间才登陆，它们登陆后会摧毁沿岸庄稼并威胁用水安全。然而，漫长的移动时间意味着天气预报员可能能够预测这种最新认定的干旱形式将在什么时候影响到如美国西部等关键地区。
Drought has affected more of the world’s population than
tsunamis,
earthquakes or any other
natural hazard
in the past 40 years, killing and displacing people by the millions, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
据联合国粮农组织统计，在过去40年里，干旱对世界人口的影响超过海啸、地震或其他任何自然灾害，造成数百万人流离失所甚至死亡。
And landfalling droughts are particularly extreme, compared with conventional ones: on average worldwide, they can be one third drier and can grow nearly four times as fast and more than five times larger.
The researchers did not investigate why they are more severe, but “one idea is that the
atmospheric
patterns responsible for landfalling droughts may themselves be different,” Herrera Estrada says. For example, the patterns that create and propel landfalling droughts may be larger than the patterns that drive those that form, and remain, over land.
埃雷拉·埃斯特拉达说，研究人员没有调查为什么旱情更严重，但“一种观点是，导致旱情的大气模式可能有所不同。”例如，造成和推动登陆式干旱的模式可能比导致形成和保持陆地干旱的模式范围更大。
本文节选自：Scientific American（科学美国人）
发布时间：2020.11.23
作者：Robin Meadows
原文标题：Harsh Droughts Can Actually Start Over Oceans
