This year is on course to be the world’s hottest since measurements began, according to meteorologists, who estimate there is a 50% to 75% chance that 2020 will break the record set four years ago.
气象学家说，今年将是自气温测量开始以来世界上最热的一年。气象学家们估计，2020年的气温将有可能打破四年前的纪录。这一可能性高达50％至75％。
Although the coronavirus lockdown has temporarily cleared the skies, it has done nothing to cool the climate, which needs deeper, longer-term measures, the scientists say.
科学家说，尽管冠状病毒带来的封锁暂时让天空清澈了些许，但气候丝毫没有变“冷”，这需要更深层次的长期措施。
Heat records have been broken from the Antarctic to Greenland since January, which has surprised many scientists because this is not an El Niño year, the phenomenon usually associated with high temperatures.
自一月份以来，从南极到格陵兰的气温记录都已经被打破。这令许多科学家感到惊讶，因为这不是高温造成的厄尔尼诺现象。
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration calculates there is a 75% chance that 2020 will be the hottest year since measurements began.
美国国家海洋与大气管理局估计，有75％的可能2020年将成为气温测量以来最热的一年。
The US agency said trends were closely tracking the current record of 2016, when temperatures soared early in the year due to an unusually intense El Niño and then came down.
美国国家海洋与大气管理局表示，目前的趋势正在接近2016年的记录。当时由于厄尔尼诺现象异常强烈，气温突然飙升，然后又下降了。
The US agency said there was a 99.9% likelihood that 2020 will be one of the top five years for temperatures on record.
美国国家海洋与大气管理局表示，2020年将成为有史以来气温最高的五年之一，这个可能性为99.9％。
A separate calculation by Gavin Schmidt, the director of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York, found a 60% chance this year will set a record.
位于纽约的国家航空航天局戈达德太空研究所所长加文·施密特（Gavin Schmidt）通过另一项研究发现，今年的气温有60％的可能会创下纪录。
The Met Office is more cautious, estimating a 50% likelihood that 2020 will set a new record, though the UK institution says this year will extend the run of warm years since 2015, which is the hottest period on record.
英国气象局（Met Office）则看起来更加谨慎，他们估计2020年的气温创下新纪录的可能性为50％，尽管英国相关部门曾表示今年将延续自2015年以来的高温，成为有史以来最热的时期。
Abnormal weather is increasingly the norm as temperature records fall year after year, and month after month.
随着高温的记录逐年逐月地下降，异常天气越来越成为常态。
▲Dried lake and river on summer, Water crisis at africa or ethiopia and Climate change or drought concept.
This January was the hottest on record, leaving many Arctic nations without snow in their capital cities. In February, a research base in the Antarctic registered a temperature of more than 20℃ (68F) for the first time on the southern continent. At the other end of the world, Qaanaaq, in Greenland, set an April record of 6℃ on Sunday.
今年1月是有记录以来最热的时期，许多北极国家的首都都没有积雪。 2月，南极的一个研究基地在南极大陆第一次记录到了超过20摄氏度（68华氏度）的温度。而在世界另一端，格陵兰岛的卡纳克在周日也以6℃的“高温”创下了4月份的记录。
In the first quarter, the heating was most pronounced in eastern Europe and Asia, where temperatures were 3℃ above average. In recent weeks, large parts of the US have sweltered. Last Friday, downtown Los Angeles hit an April high of 34℃, according to the National Weather Service. Western Australia has also experienced record heat.
在第一季度，高温在东欧和亚洲最为明显，那里的温度比平均温度高3℃。最近几周，美国大部分地区也感受到了闷热。国家气象局（National Weather Service）的数据显示，上周五，洛杉矶市中心达到了4月的34℃高温。西澳大利亚州也经历了创纪录的炎热。
In the UK, the trend is less pronounced. The daily maximum UK temperature for April so far is 3.1℃ above average, with records set in Cornwall, Dyfed and Gwynedd.
然而在英国，这种趋势不太明显。到目前为止，4月份英国的每日最高温度比平均温度高3.1℃，这在康沃尔（Cornwall），戴夫（Dyfed）和格温德（Gwynedd）均创下了记录。
▲A giant piece of Ice breaks off the Perito Moreno Glacier in Patagonia, Argentina
Karsten Haustein, a climate scientist at the University of Oxford, said global warming was nudging closer to 1.2℃ above pre-industrial levels. He said his online tracker showed a relatively conservative level of 1.14℃ of warming due to gaps in the data, but that this could rise to 1.17℃ or higher once the latest figures were incorporated.
牛津大学气候学家卡斯滕·豪斯坦（Karsten Haustein）表示，全球变暖带来的高温比工业化前水平高出了1.2℃。他说，由于数据中的空白，他的网络监测器显示出一个相对保守的数字——1.14℃；但是一旦结合了最新数据，这个数字就可能上升到1.17℃或更高。
Although the pandemic has at least temporarily reduced the amount of new emissions, he said the build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere remains a huge concern.
他说，尽管这种流行病暂时减少了新的污染排放量，但大气中温室气体的积累仍然是一个严重的问题。
“The climate crisis continues unabated,” Haustein said. “The emissions will go down this year, but the concentrations keep on rising. We are very unlikely to be able to notice any slowdown in the built-up of atmospheric GHG levels. But we have the unique chance now to reconsider our choices and use the corona crisis as a catalyst for more sustainable means of transport and energy production (via incentives, taxes, carbon prices etc).”
“气候危机没有减弱。”豪斯坦说，“今年的排放量将减少，但浓度仍在上升。大气中温室气体排放不太可能下降。但是，我们现在有一个宝贵的机会重新思考我们的选择，并把这次病毒作为促进可持续化的运输和能源生产的催化剂（通过激励措施，税收，碳排放费等）。”
This was echoed by Grahame Madge, a climate spokesman for the Met Office: “A reliance and trust in science to inform action from governments and society to solve a global emergency are exactly the measures needed to seed in plans to solve the next crisis facing mankind: climate change.”
英国气象局（Met Office）格雷厄姆·马达（Grahame Madge）对此表示赞同：“政府和社会依靠科学数据行动，解决全球性的紧急情况，这才是我们解决人类将要面临的气候变化危机时需要采取的措施。”
本文作者系Jonathan Watts，《卫报》亚洲特派记者，首席环境记者。
“这是【外刊阅读者】发出的第3篇文章”
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