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    Wild Weather: What Is Happening To Our Weather?

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    Thelma Estudillo
    Extreme weather events like heavy rainfall and droughts are becoming more common. These events can be very destructive, like the heavy rainfall in Rio de Janeiro that caused landslides killing hundreds. While natural climate cycles influence weather, human-caused climate change is also a factor. Greenhouse gases are warming the atmosphere and oceans, which increases water vapor in the air leading to more severe storms, hurricanes, and rainfall. We must address climate change to reduce its impacts on extreme weather in the future.

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    Wild Weather: What Is Happening To Our Weather?

    Uploaded by

    Thelma Estudillo
    35 views4 pages
    Extreme weather events like heavy rainfall and droughts are becoming more common. These events can be very destructive, like the heavy rainfall in Rio de Janeiro that caused landslides killing hundreds. While natural climate cycles influence weather, human-caused climate change is also a factor. Greenhouse gases are warming the atmosphere and oceans, which increases water vapor in the air leading to more severe storms, hurricanes, and rainfall. We must address climate change to reduce its impacts on extreme weather in the future.

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    READING COMPREHENSION

    Original Title

    Wild Weather

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    Extreme weather events like heavy rainfall and droughts are becoming more common. These events can be very destructive, like the heavy rainfall in Rio de Janeiro that caused landslides killing hundreds. While natural climate cycles influence weather, human-caused climate change is also a factor. Greenhouse gases are warming the atmosphere and oceans, which increases water vapor in the air leading to more severe storms, hurricanes, and rainfall. We must address climate change to reduce its impacts on extreme weather in the future.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as docx, pdf, or txt
    35 views4 pages

    Wild Weather: What Is Happening To Our Weather?

    Uploaded by

    Thelma Estudillo
    Extreme weather events like heavy rainfall and droughts are becoming more common. These events can be very destructive, like the heavy rainfall in Rio de Janeiro that caused landslides killing hundreds. While natural climate cycles influence weather, human-caused climate change is also a factor. Greenhouse gases are warming the atmosphere and oceans, which increases water vapor in the air leading to more severe storms, hurricanes, and rainfall. We must address climate change to reduce its impacts on extreme weather in the future.

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    Wild weather

    What is happening to our weather?


    What is ‘extreme’ weather? Why are people talking about it these
    days? ‘Extreme’ weather is an unusual weather event such as
    rainfall, a drought or a heat wave in the wrong place or at the wrong
    time. In theory, they are very rare. But these days, our TV screens
    are constantly showing such extreme weather events. Take just
    three news stories from 2010: 28 centimetres of rain fell on Rio de
    Janeiro in 24 hours, Nashville, USA, had 33 centimetres of rain in
    two days and there was record rainfall in Pakistan.
    The effects of this kind of rainfall are dramatic and lethal. In Rio de
    Janeiro, landslides followed, burying hundreds of people. In
    Pakistan, the floods affected 20 million people. Meanwhile, other
    parts of the world suffer devastating droughts. Australia, Russia and
    East Africa have been hit in the last ten years. And then there are
    unexpected heat waves, such as in 2003 in Europe. That summer,
    35,000 deaths were said to be heat-related.
    So, what is happening to our weather? Are these extreme events
    part of a natural cycle? Or are they caused by human activity and its
    effects on the Earth’s climate? Peter Miller says it’s probably a
    mixture of both of these things. On the one hand, the most important
    influences on weather events are natural cycles in the climate. Two
    of the most famous weather cycles, El Niño and La Niña, originate in
    the Pacific Ocean. The heat from the warm ocean rises high into the
    atmosphere and affects weather all around the world. On the other
    hand, the temperature of the Earth’s oceans is slowly but steadily
    going up. And this is a result of human activity. We are producing
    greenhouse gases that trap heat in the Earth’s atmosphere. This
    heat warms up the atmosphere, land and oceans. Warmer oceans
    produce more water vapour – think of heating a pan of water in your
    kitchen. Turn up the heat, it produces steam more quickly. Satellite
    data tells us that the water vapour in the atmosphere has gone up
    by four percent in 25 years. This warm, wet air turns into the rain,
    storms, hurricanes and typhoons that we are increasingly
    experiencing.
    Climate scientist, Michael Oppenheimer, says that we need to face
    the reality of climate change. And we also need to act now to save
    lives and money in the future.
    Reading comprehension:
    Read the article and choose the correct option.

    1. The article says extreme weather is ...

    becoming more common.

    not a natural occurrence.

    difficult for scientists to understand.

    2. According to the article, extreme weather is a problem


    because ...

    we can't predict it.

    it affects places where lots of people live.

    it’s often very destructive.

    3. Extreme weather can by caused by ...

    satellites above the Earth.

    water vapour in the atmosphere.

    very hot summers.

    Read the article again and choose the correct option.

    4. Why was the rain in Nashville considered to be an extreme


    event?

    There was a lot of rain over a long time period.

    It doesn’t usually rain in Nashville.

    There was a lot of rain in a short time.

    5. What happened after the extreme rain in Rio de Janeiro?

    There were major floods.

    There were many deaths.

    Millions of people were affected.


    6. What caused many deaths in 2003?

    a period of hot weather

    floods that followed a bad summer

    a long drought

    7. Which of these things is the basis of normal weather


    patterns?

    greenhouse gases

    human activity

    El Niño and La Niña

    8. Where does atmospheric water vapour come from?

    the land

    the ocean

    greenhouse gases

    9. We can use satellites to ...

    change where storms will happen.

    trap greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

    measure changes in atmospheric water vapour.

    10. According to Michael Oppenheimer ...

    we don't understand extreme weather events.

    we can limit the effects of extreme weather.

    we can stop climate change.


    Keywords:
    air (n) the mixture of gases that is around the Earth and that we
    breathe

    atmosphere (n) the air around the Earth

    climate (n) the general weather conditions that are typical of a place

    cycle (n) a series of things that are repeated again and again

    death (n) the end of life

    drought (n) a long period of time without rain

    event (n) something that happens, especially something important


    or unusual

    heat (n) the quality of being warm, or the temperature of something


    that is warm

    hit (v) to have a bad effect on someone or something

    lethal (adj) extremely dangerous and causing death

    rainfall (n) the amount of rain that falls

    steam (n) the hot mist that forms when water boils

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