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The science behind tornado formation

 

Hello and welcome to CNN 10.

I'm Allison Chinchar, filling in for Coy just for today.

 

He's actually out on the West Coast shooting some special content for later this summer.

So if you're in Las Cruses, New Mexico today, you might see his bald head out and about.

 

out and about 活跃的; 正常行动的

 

I'm excited to be here with you.

We've got a great show for you today so let's go ahead and get started.

 

We begin today with severe storms that battered a large area of the US and triggered dozensof tornado reports over the last week.

 

Now late last week an EF3 tornado rocked the St Louis area, damaging or destroying thousands of buildings.

And a powerful EF4 tornado tore across southern Kentucky.

 

The National Weather Service officials say it was the deadliest tornado in the history of their area with London, Kentucky hit particularly hard.

 

Now another storm hit parts of Kansas, Oklahomaand Colorado late on Sunday.

Where homes were severely damaged, roads were blocked and cars were overturned.

 

The storms were powerful enough to toss semitrucks into a field in Kansas.

 

semitruck (= semitrailer); 半拖车

 

A powerful EF1 tornado tore apart homes and brought down trees in Nebraska.

We went into the bathtub and then put pillows and blankets and I just laid on top of my daughter.

 

So that if anything came through I would hopefully get me and her.

It sounded like a train basically and just really windy.

 

And then you could hear stuff hitting against like the house.

More tornadoes touched down as the severe weather pattern continued earlier in the week.

 

Battering homes and power lines in the small city of Plevna, Kansas.

Now thankfully no one was injured there.

 

And as the severe weather moved east millions of people in parts of the Mississippi, Ohio and Tennessee valleys braced for new rounds of storms as they were still cleaning up debris from the previous storms.

 

It is simply unsafe to be around that much debris with this level of wind.

Now further east, tornadoes touch down in parts of Alabama.

 

Let's head to the weather center to show you what meteorologists like myself look for when these storms form.

This is a two-dimensional look at a storm on radar.

 

But meteorologists see a tornado but what is it exactly that meteorologists see.

Well let's take a look.

 

The yellow and green colors you see here are going to be your very heavy rain in the storm.

The red color indicates your hail core.

 

And then all the way down there the purple circle that's where your tornado is going to be.

Meteorologists often refer to it as the hook echo because of the hook shape that it ends up taking.

 

hook echo 钩状回波

 

But these aren't the only features we look for.

We also have to take a look at the winds inside the storm.

 

Imagine this flag pole was inside of our storm and the flags going all the way up to the very top of the cloud.

The thing is the wind changes direction as you go up.

 

So this naturally creates that rotation necessary for funnel clouds and also even tornadoes.

 

funnel clouds 漏斗云

 

So now let's take a look at the base of that storm.

What you have is you have very warm inflow warm air coming into the storm and rising.

 

inflow [ˋɪn͵flo] n. 涌入

 

Because that's what warm air does, it goes up.

But you also have cold air coming down from the tops of the clouds and sinking all the way down towards the base.

 

Now together these help to create wind shear down near the perimeter.

 

wind shear 風切; （飛機遭遇到的）亂流

 

And that is what helps create some of the more violent tornadoes.

Now what if your tornado has been on the ground for at least a little bit.

 

Then you start to get this the debris cloud.

Which is essentially a collection of all of the stuff the tornado has been able to pick up everything from dust to trees to even homes.

 

Now tornadoes can happen almost anywhere so it's important to know the differences between the three key alerts for these storms.

 

You have a tornado watch, a tornado warning or a tornado emergency.

And the National Weather Service has come up with a pretty clever analogy to help us all remember, tacos.

 

analogy [əˋnælədʒɪ] n. 比拟；类推

 

So a taco watch is we have all of the ingredients but we haven't yet assembled the tacos.

Simply meaning we have all the ingredients for a tornado and they're present.

 

But you need to make sure you know your emergency plans and can be ready to go to a safe place when the taco is made.

Now you have a taco warning.

 

This means the taco is made or in other words a tornado has either been seen or indicated by weather radar.

So the threat of danger is imminent you want to move to an interior room on the lowest floor of a sturdy building and avoid all windows.

 

Also anyone in a mobile home should safely move to a more substantial shelter.

And the third and highest alert level is a tornado emergency.

 

Now no tacos here but this alert is reserved for rare situations.

It's issued when a confirmed and violent tornado poses a substantial risk to life and property.

 

And it means it's time to take shelter immediately preferably underground.

 

preferably [ˋprɛfərəblɪ] adv. 可能的话;更可取地，更好地

 

10-second trivia now what country has the highest density of robot workers?

Is it Japan, China, Germany, or South Korea?

 

Your answer here is South Korea.

Currently home to over 1,000 industrial robots per 10,000 employees in the manufacturing industry.

 

Engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology better known as MIT have just created a tiny robot, the size of an Air Pod.

Kind of like an insect it moves by hopping and weighs less than a paper clip.

 

paper clip 回形针，曲别针

 

With a spring-loaded leg and four flapping wings, here's how it works.

The passive leg, just like a tiny pogo stick make sure the robot can bounce back efficiently from the ground.

 

 pogo stick 蹦蹦跷，弹簧单高跷

 

On the other hand, the flapping wing modules ensure the robot stay upright for stability.

So why does the world need such a small cyborg.

 

cyborg [ˋsaɪbɔrg] abbr. = cybernetic organism 半机械人；电子人；机器侠

 

The creators say the robot could be used in search and rescue operations because it can navigate confined spaces and withstand rough terrain.

 

confined [kənˋfaɪnd] adj. 受限制的；狭窄的

 

It's official, flag football will be making its debut in the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.

 

flag football 腰旗橄榄球

 

And you may be seeing some of the biggest names in the NFL representing the US in the sport.

Flag football is the no contact version of American football that swaps tackles for grabbing flags the opponents are wearing.

 

tackle [ˋtæk!] n.（橄榄球赛中的）擒抱摔倒

 

While the International Olympic Committee approved the inclusion of the sport back in 2023.

The NFL just voted to allow a maximum of one player per NFL team to go for the flag football gold.

 

Plus each club's designated international athlete will be able to play for his country.

And the Olympic flag football competition will also include women's teams.

 

Now to South Korea where a trip to the nation's largest fish market can be an overwhelming sensory experience.

There are rows of hundreds of vendors, a wide variety of live seafood and a whole lot of smells.

 

Luckily our Lilit Marcus went there to give us some tips on making the most of a visit.

 

makethe most of 做最有效的利用; 尽量利用

 

We are in Noryangjin which is the oldest and biggest fish market in Seoul.

Think of it as like a giant mall but the only thing you can buy is live fish and shellfish.

 

It's just bigger, it's way bigger.

Uh there's much more variety to that, it's fresher I believe.

 

Noryangjin originally was opened in 1927 but it moved here to this location in the 1970s which is where it's been ever since.

Okay it's chewier than I expected. It’s movingin my mouth.

 

A couple things that you should know if you come here.

First of all, all the fish is live so that means you can pick it out and then take it upstairs and have someone cook it right there so that you can eat it.

 

It's about as fresh as it gets.

You're also totally welcome to haggle. In fact they kind of expect it.

 

haggle [ˋhæg!]v.（在价格、条件等方面）争论不休; 讨价还价

 

Another important thing if you visit, make sure that you wear good footwear.

 

footwear [ˋfʊt͵wɛr] n.（总称）鞋类

 

The floors are wet and I'm an idiot who showed up in ballet flats.

So you want to take a cue from all the other people who are here. Try a pair of tennis shoes or some rain boots.

 

take a cue 照…的样子做；模仿…；仿效…(+ from someone/something)

cue [kju] n. 暗示; 提示; 提白

 

Today's story of getting a 10 out of 10 goes to a school resource officer doing a good deed for a student in need.

 

school resource officer 学校资源官

 

Officer Brett Boyer noticed one of his high school seniors was due for an upgrade.

Shawn Merritt was born with cerebral palsy and relies on an electric wheelchair to get around.

 

cerebral palsy【医】大脑性麻痹

palsy [ˋpɔlzɪ] n. 麻痹，瘫痪

 

But that chair had seen better days and Boyer decided to take action.

 

have seen better days 已經破敗；風光不再

 

I went out and talked to some of my good friends and people of the neighborhood and the community and explain the situation.

 

And before I could get past Shawn Merritt, which is Shawn's name, they were all in.

The community rallied to raise money and by senior scholarship night.

 

Boyer surprised the graduating senior with a new wheelchair complete with upgraded features and even Bluetooth speakers.

A gift Merritt says will remind him of home as it helps him transition to college life in the fall.

 

All right superstars it's time to send out a shout out to Mr. O and all of the Patriots at Colonia Middle School in Colonia, New Jersey.

 

Thanks for spending part of your day with us and thank you all for letting me spend the day with you.

Coy will be back tomorrow to finish out the rest of the week.

 

It's been a blast getting to fill in and host the best 10 minutes in news.

 

blast [blæst] n.  (Slang) a highly exciting or pleasurable experience or event, such as a big party

 

Have a great day everyone.