科学揭秘"暴风雨前的宁静"

A period of calm happens in a particular kind of storm, the simplest kind of storm—a single-cell thunderstorm . In this type of thunderstorm, there is usually only one main updraft, which is warm, humid air and drawn from places near the ground. Storms need warm and moist air as fuel, so they typically draw that air in from surrounding environment. Storms can draw in the air that fit their need from all directions—even from the direction in which the storm is traveling.

平静时期出现在一种特定的暴风雨中，即最简单的暴风雨——单细胞雷暴。在这种类型的雷暴中，通常只有一种主要的上升气流，即暖湿气流从地面升起。温暖湿润的空气是暴风雨形成的必要条件，所以通常会把它们从周围的环境中吸进来。雷暴能够从周围任何一个方向吸进自己所需的暖湿空气——甚至是处在雷暴运动方向上的空气也被吸了进来。

As the warm, moist air is pulled into a storm system, it leaves a low-pressure vacuum in its wake. The rising air meets the cold dry air that has already existed in the storm clouds, thus the temperature of the warm air drops, and the water vapor in it condenses into tiny droplets that are a precondition of rain. These droplets clump up and build on larger particles like dust, until they grow large enough to form raindrops.

由于暖湿空气被吸进雷暴中，雷暴经过之处就形成了低气压真空带。正在上升的暖湿气流遇到雷暴云层中原本就存在的干燥冷空气，此时热空气的温度下降，里面的水分凝结成小的水滴——这是形成雨水的前提。这些水滴不断聚集，包裹住一些大的颗粒（如灰尘），当水滴凝聚到足够大时就会形成降雨。

This warm, moist air keeps moving upwards, but it becomes colder and drier during its trip through cloud which involves cooling and condensation. When it reaches the top of the cloud mass, the air gets spit out at the top. This air is sent rolling out over the big, anvil — shaped head of the thunderclouds. From there, the air descends—drawn back toward lower altitudes by the very vacuum its departure created in the first place. Warm and dry air is relatively stable, and once it blankets a region, it stabilizes that air in turn. This causes the calm before a storm.

暖湿气流持续上升，但当穿越云层时经历气温下降水汽凝结的过程，暖湿气流开始冷却并变得干燥。当暖湿气流达到云层顶部时，会被挤出云层，这股气流会翻过巨大的铁砧形雷雨云。此时，气流开始下沉——被其自身上升时所形成的真空带吸回低处。干热的气流相对稳定，一旦它覆盖了某一个地区，就会使该区域的气流稳定下来，这就造成了暴风雨前的平静。

Most thunderstorms, though, don't start with a calm. That's because most are actually clusters of storms with complex wind patterns. There's so much air moving up and down in the vicinity of these storm clusters that the calm before the storm never happens. And instead, before the storm, it might be really windy!

尽管如此，大多数的雷暴来临前并不是一片宁静。这是因为它们大多是风向复杂的暴风雨团。在暴风雨团的周围，有很多气流频繁上下流动，这就使得这种类型的暴风雨来临前毫无平静可言。相反，这种类型的暴风雨来临前往往会狂风大作。