国际英语资讯:Fierce snowstorm disrupts travel, knocks out power in U.S. Northeast_时事

国际英语资讯:Fierce snowstorm disrupts travel, knocks out power in U.S. Northeast

Some experts said the extreme weather was a result of climate change.

"It is often difficult for public to link global warming to living environment, because the process between the two are non-linear," Yifang Zhu, associate director of Center for Clean Air and professor of Department of Environmental Health Sciences at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), told Xinhua.

"Global warming doesn't just mean warming," said Zhu. "It means the average temperature on Earth, including the ocean and the atmosphere, is increasing year by year."

While the globe is becoming hotter on average, this temperature increase can have paradoxical effects, such as more extreme snowstorms, she said.

"Extreme weather is one of the impacts of global warming. As the planet warms, many already-dry areas are becoming even drier. Many extremely cold areas are becoming even colder. Hurricanes in Texas is becoming more intense."

Many governors or local leaders have declared emergencies, and blizzard warnings were in effect in Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Virginia. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo declared a state of emergency for all of downstate New York.

The advancing storm first landed in the southern United States on Wednesday. Three cars on an Amtrak train carrying more than 300 passengers from Miami to New York derailed Wednesday night in snow-covered Savannah, Georgia. No injuries were reported.