又中又英｜A clear sign of climate change

Has autumn finally arrived in Hong Kong? I hope so. A fresh northeast monsoon brought overcast skies with intermittent rain Sunday morning. It was windy and cool when I went out early in the morning to my tiny balcony overlooking the Sai Wan Ho harbour. By late morning the sun peeked out. It made my day. An overcast sky is a sky covered with dark clouds without sunlight. Intermittent rain means rain that starts and stops. If the sun peeks out, it means it comes out a bit and can be partly seen. To make your day means to make you happy.

When I was growing up in Hong Kong, autumn usually arrived in September, around the time of the Mid-Autumn Festival. But this year's September felt like summer. The US space agency NASA said the summer of 2023 was the hottest since global records began in 1880. I spent the summer in different cities in the US. It was abnormally hot with azure skies on most days. An azure sky is a bright blue sky on a clear and cloudless day. The Hong Kong Observatory has predicted much cooler weather this week, with temperatures ranging from 19 to 25 degrees.

That is much cooler than the 33 to 34 degrees during this Hong Kong summer. But it is still warm for November weather. The temperature in Austin, Texas where my younger brother lives reached over 40 degrees on some days during the summer. Even some US cities that I visited that normally have comfortable summers were abnormally hot. It is a clear sign of climate change.

香港是否終於迎來秋天了？我希望是吧。一股清新的東北季候風，在星期日的早上帶來了多雲（overcast）有驟雨（intermittent rain）的天氣。當我清晨步出我的小露台，俯瞰西灣河海濱時，是大風而涼快的。到了早上晚些時候，太陽探出頭來了（the sun peeked out），這實在令我很開心（made my day）。An overcast sky就是沒有陽光，烏雲密布的天色； intermittent rain就是陣雨，時降時停。要是 the sun peeks out，意即太陽露出來了，可以稍稍見到它。To make your day是指它令你很高興，感到這一天很美好。

我兒時在香港長大，那時的秋天，通常於九月大概中秋節左右的時分來臨。然而，這一年的九月更像夏天。美國的太空機構太空總署指，二零二三年的夏天，是自一八八零年世界有紀錄以來最炎熱的夏天。我這個夏天待在美國幾個不同的城市，大部分的日子都是不尋常的炎熱，有着 azure skies——an azure sky就是萬里無雲、蔚藍的天。香港天文台已經預測，今周將較為清涼，氣溫介乎十九至二十五度。

這個氣溫比香港今夏的三十三至三十四度要涼快得多了，然而以十一月的天氣來說，仍屬和暖。我弟弟住的德州奧斯汀，夏季期間有些日子氣溫高達四十度。甚或是我到訪的一些美國城市，往常有着舒適的夏天，也不尋常地炎熱。這是氣候變化的明確迹象。

mickchug@gmail.com
Michael Chugani褚簡寧
中譯：七刻