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Climate and extreme weather ⏲️ 6 Minute English – Transcript
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- Weather forecaster Sarah Keith-Lucas explains that climate is long-term, while weather is seen and felt every day.
- Climate scientists think that warming tropical storms will get more destructive and slow down.
- Sarah Keith-Lucas states that the Earth's average temperature has increased by around 1C since 1970.
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Hello. This is 6 Minute Englishfrom BBC Learning English. I'm Phil. It seems that we're hearing about moreand more terrible weather events, but how exactly is climate changeaffecting extreme weather? I'm lucky today to be joined byBBC weather forecaster, meteorologist and presenter Sarah Keith-Lucas.Hi, Sarah.
Hi, Phil, it's great to be here. Sarah is here to help us understandwhat's happening with extreme weather. She'll also help explain someof the words and expressions used in a new series of BBC Learning Englishvideos, all about weather and climate, and the language we use to talkabout them.
You can find the link to them on our web page orin the show notes for this podcast. Sarah, let's startwith a really important question. What's the difference between climateand weather? That's a great question, Phil. The weather is what you seeand feel every day.
Climate is more long term. Today, I'll explainhow a change in the climate over the long term can be seenin the weather that we experience. And as always, we'll also be learning some keyvocabulary to talk about the topic. And Sarah, it's traditionalfor us to set a quiz question.
Have you got one for us?Yes I have. By how much has the Earth'stemperature increased since 1970? Is it a) around 0.5C? b) around 1C or c)around 2C?
Erm, around 2C? I'll give you the answerat the end of the programme, so listen to the end to find out. Now we're going to talkabout tropical storms. What do we meanby tropical storms, Sarah? Well those are hurricanes,cyclones and typhoons.
They're large rotating storms formedover warm tropical waters. They're actually the same. We just use different names dependingon where in the world they form. Hurricanes in the Atlantic. Cyclones in the Indian Oceanand typhoons in the West Pacific.
As the world warms, climate scientists think that thesestorms will get more destructive. In one of our new learning Englishfor weather videos. Meteorologist Darren Bett tells usabout another worrying change. Scientists also thinkstorms are slowing down.
They're not moving across as quickly. And that means if a storm isin the same area for longer, the winds will be stronger for longerand the rain will last for longer, producing more flooding and morelikelihood of flooding and landslides and also mudslides.
Darren saidthat if a storm moves more slowly, there will be more likelihoodof flooding. 'Likelihood' is the nounthat we use to say how probable or how likely something is to happen. Darren also told usabout landslides and mudslides.
Yes, landslides arewhere a large amount of earth or rock moves down a slope quickly. Mudslides tend to be fasterand more liquid. Both of these things can happenafter particularly heavy rain and can cause damage to buildings.
People can also be killedor injured by them. What else causes loss of lifein a hurricane, typhoon, or cyclone? Well, something else that isvery dangerous is a storm surge. Let's hear againfrom my colleague Darren Bett. Storm surge.
That's that body of waterthat gets swept inland and produces widespread flooding. Climate change is warming our seasand the sea levels are rising. That potentially could mean thatstorm surge, which is one element of a storm that producesmore casualties than any other.
Those storm surges could becomeeven more dangerous. So, we had the word 'casualty', and this is used to talk about peoplekilled or injured by an accident, a military attack, or in this case,an extreme weather event. Darren talked about storm surges.
A storm surge iswhere the sea level rises quickly, pushed by strong windscaused by a storm. This water comes onto landwith an enormous amount of force, and storm surges can beup to ten metres high.
Buildings get destroyedand people can drown. We heard about the stormsweeping inland. Something sweeping inis moving quickly and powerfully, and you can hear more from Darrenin the videos on our website. Sarah, how about the answer tothe quiz question you asked earlier?
OK, Phil.So I asked by how much has the world's averagetemperature increased since 1970? And I thought it wasaround 2C. It's actuallyaround 1C. 1C is just an average acrossall of Earth's land and ocean surface.
Some places are warming much quickerthan this, such as the Arctic. That's warming three times fasterthan the average rate, just a small increasein average temperature can lead to a much bigger increase in extreme eventssuch as heatwaves, wildfires and floods.
Wow. So that isan important difference. OK, let's recap the vocabularywe've learned starting with 'likelihood', which is the noun that we use to talkabout how probable or how likely something is to happen. Landslides and mudslides,which can occur after heavy rainfall, make earthor mud move downhill very fast.
A storm surge is a sudden rise inthe sea level that can move inland, causing destruction. If something sweeps in, it movesin very fast and very powerfully. And finally,a casualty is someone who is injured or killed by an accident, attack, or something like an extreme weatherevent. Once again our six minutes are up. Goodbye.Thanks for joining us today, Sarah! Bye!