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Make some noise if you're a fan of snow!
如果你超级喜欢下雪的话，就大声喊出来吧！
Yeah!
就这样！
We love to be outside when it snows.
下雪的时候我们都喜欢待在外面。
We like to go sledding, make a snow fort, or even just take a walk!
我们可以滑雪橇、搭雪堡，甚至只是散散步!
But there are some times when it's definitely not a good idea to go out in the snow!
但有些时候，雪天里出门可绝对不是个好主意！
And one of those times is during a blizzard.
其中之一就是下暴风雪的时候。
A blizzard is a kind of big snowstorm.
暴风雪是大型的狂风和暴雪的集合体。
But it's a special one!
但又很特殊！
Blizzards start in the same way that some other powerful storms start: when two big areas of air meet.
暴风雪的起因与其他一些强风暴的起因相同：都是两大团空气交汇形成的。
One of these big areas of air is colder, and the other is warmer.
其中一团是冷空气，另一团较较暖。
To make a blizzard, the warm air gets pushed up so it's on top of the cold air.
暖空气推高位于冷空气之上，从而形成了暴风雪。
Warm air on top of cold air makes conditions just right for lots of wind and water to come together.
暖空气覆盖在冷空气之上，这为大量的风和水聚集创造了合适的条件。
That's true, Squeaks, blizzards don't usually have rain.
没错，小吱吱，暴风雪的时候通常不会下雨。
They have snow!
它是要下雪的！
But remember what snow is made of?
但雪是由什么形成的呢？
It's frozen water.
是由冰冻的水形成的。
Since the air that's on the bottom of the storm and closer to the ground is cold, the water can freeze into snow.
由于暴风底部离地面较近的是冷空气，所以水会结冰形成雪。
Scientists say that for a snowstorm to be considered an official blizzard, three things have to happen.
科学家说，暴雪要形成真正的暴风雪的话，需要具备三个因素。
First, to be a blizzard, a snowstorm has to have a lot of wind.
首先，要形成暴风雪的话，暴雪还必须要伴随大风的发生。
And the wind has to blow pretty hard!
风力必须十分强劲！
Winds in a blizzard have to blow at least 55 kilometers an hour — as fast as a car driving down the street!
暴风雪中的风速至少要达到每小时55公里——就像行驶在街上的汽车一样快！
That makes it strong enough to blow around things that are outside, like lawn furniture or garbage cans.
这样的风力使得它足以吹动户外的东西，例如草坪家具或者垃圾桶。
Second, the visibility in a blizzard has to be pretty low.
其次，暴风雪中的能见度也要非常低。
Visibility is just how far you can see.
能见度就是你能看到多远的事物。
When things like fog, snow, clouds, or rain get in the way, you can't see as far, so we'd say the visibility goes down.
当雾、雪、云或雨之类的东西挡住去路时，你就看不了太远了，我们称这种情况为能见度降低。
For example, on a clear sunny day, you might be able to see as far as the mountains in the distance, which is pretty far!
例如，在晴朗的日子里，你可以看到远处的群山，这个距离已经很远了！
Right, as long as there's nothing in the way, like trees or buildings.
没错，只要没有树或建筑物等障碍物阻挡着，你就能看清那么远的东西。
But in a blizzard, visibility goes way down.
但在暴风雪中，能见度会大大降低。
You might only be able to see two blocks down the street, or even less!
你可能只能看到两个街区内的东西，甚至更近距离的！
You can't see very far in a blizzard because of the snow that's falling from the sky and being blown around by all that wind.
在暴风雪中，由于雪从天而降，又被狂风吹得四处飞扬，所以你根本无法看清很远的地方。
In some really strong blizzards, there might be no visibility — meaning you wouldn't be able to see much of anything at all, even if it's only a few meters or feet away!
在一些势头非常猛烈的暴风雪中，能见度可能为零，这意味着你根本看不到任何东西，即使只有几米或几英尺远的东西，你都看不到！
Sometimes when there's no visibility like that people will call it a "whiteout". That means the blowing snow makes it pretty difficult, if not impossible to see anything but the color white!
有时，如果能见度很低的话，人们会称之为 "白茫茫的一片"。这意味着吹起的雪会让路变得非常难走，除了白色的雪什么都看不见。
Now, the third thing that separates blizzards from ordinary snowstorms is time.
将暴风雪与普通暴雪区分开来的第三点就是持续时间。
To be a blizzard, a snowstorm has to last three hours—or longer.
暴雪必须持续三小时或更长时间才能称为暴风雪。
So you can see why blizzards are some serious storms!
所以你知道为什么暴风雪是非常严重的风暴了吧！
Have you noticed that there's one thing we haven't talked about when it comes to what makes a blizzard a blizzard?
你是否注意到，在谈到暴风雪的成因时，还有一件事我们没有提到？
Oh, you know what, Squeaks, that's not what I was thinking of, but you're right: we didn't talk about how cold a blizzard is.
哦，你知道吗，小吱吱，我想的不是这个，但你说得对：我们还没谈到暴风雪会多么冷呢。
Well, blizzards usually are very cold, but they don't have to be a certain amount of cold to be called a blizzard.
暴风雪发生的时候通常都十分寒冷,但并不是非要冷到一定程度才能称形成了暴风雪。
But we also didn't talk about how much snow a blizzard has to have!
我们还没说过一场暴风雪会下多少雪呢！
That's because blizzards don't have to have a lot of snow.
这是因为也不是非要下雪多到一定程度才能称形成了暴风雪。
But they usually do have tons of it!
但通常会下很多很多的雪！
Lots of blizzards leave behind so much snow that it's taller than you, and some leave behind even more — the snow can even be taller than me!
很多暴风雪留下的积雪比你还高，有些甚至更多——积雪甚至比我还高!
There are some places where big areas of warm and cold air meet pretty often during the winter, so they get blizzards all the time.
在一些地方，大面积的冷暖空气在冬季经常交汇，因此时常会有暴风雪发生。
For example, there are lots of blizzards right in the middle of the United States and Canada because cold, dry air comes down from the North Pole and meets the warm, wet air coming up from the water near Mexico.
例如，由于严寒，美国和加拿大中部地区经常下暴雪，这是因为干燥的冷空气从北极降下，与从墨西哥附近海域上来的湿暖空气相遇。
Places like the Northeastern US, parts of the UK, Romania, Iran, and China can also get some pretty big blizzards!
比如美国东北部和英国部分地区、罗马尼亚、伊朗和中国都会有相当大的暴风雪!
We just had a blizzard where we live a few days ago.
几天前，我们住的地方刚刚下了一场暴风雪。
But since it's not snowing at all right now, I think it's the perfect time for us to go outside and build a snowman!
但鉴于现在没下雪，我觉得这是我们出去堆雪人的最佳时机！
Come on, Squeaks, let's go get buckles up.
走吧，小吱吱，出门玩雪吧。
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