千古奇雷

　　下雨打雷不足为怪，但要打出水平来又绝非易事。2000年4月12日，肯尼亚维多利亚湖希古卢岛上就打了一个千古奇雷。

　　这一天后半晌时分，随着一阵大风，乌云夹着雷鸣闪电滚滚而来，霎时间暴雨大作。时值东非3至5月大雨节令，这样的雨对卢奥族的渔民和农民来说自为常事。然而，就在这时，一只馋嘴猴子叼着一个玉米棒子向一棵巨大的猴面包树跑去。它刚到大树下面，就被藏在树下的蟒蛇来了个突然袭击，咬住了身子。正当此时，栖于树上、善于在树木之间滑翔的鼯鼠从背后又向大蟒蛇发起了攻击。突然，伴着一道刺眼的闪电，一个惊天动地的炸雷从天而降。于是，村民们便纷纷收工躲进家中歇息去了。

　　俗话说，“迅雷不及掩耳”。这个炸雷绝对是不早不晚，一举打断了这几个动物之间的“食物链”。那棵猴面包树的小半个树冠顷刻坠地。这种有巨大树冠的猴面包树的直径可达12米，其寿命可达5000年，果实可食用。

　　大雨停后，一个村民前去树旁观看，他不禁大惊失色：原来，跌落于地的树冠下面躺着一条被雷击的蟒蛇，蟒蛇嘴里衔着一只遭雷霹死的猴子；猴子嘴里叼着一个玉米棒子；而在蟒蛇脊背靠前部分，还躺着一只兔子大小的鼯鼠尸体。此奇雷千载难逢也！

Fantastic Thunder

　　Although thunders and rains are common things, a high-level thunder is by no means easy to occur. On April 12, 2000, a seldom seen thunder exploded over the Xigulu Island on the Victoria Lake in Kenya.

　　 In dusk, a strong wind blew, and thick clouds with thunder and lightning came in torrents. In a twinkling, a rainstorm fell down. It was the rainy season (from March to May) in East Africa. Fishermen and farmers of the area have become accustomed to such rainstorm. But, just at that time, people saw a greedy monkey holding a corn ear in the mouth and running towards a big monkey bread tree. When the monkey just got under the tree, it was attacked suddenly by a boa hiding there. The big boa held the monkey in its mouth. In the twinkling of an eye, a flying squirrel, who is good at gliding between trees and now perching on the tree, launched an attack on big boa’s eye from behind. Suddenly, a sky-rocking thunder descended from heaven. Then, people working in the fields stopped work and went home for a hide.

　　As the saying goes, “a sudden explosion of a thunder leaves no time for people to cover their ears”. That thunderbolt occurred by chance at a time that is neither too late nor too early. It broke the food chain among these animals at one stroke. Almost one half of the big monkey bread tree’s corona was strucked off by the thunder in an instant. Having a huge corona 12 meters in diameter, the tree can live as long as over 5000 years and its fruit can be used for food.

　　When the rain stopped, a villager went to the tree. He couldn’t help turning pale with fright. Under that fallen corona the big boa lay dead. A dead monkey was between its teeth. While that monkey was holding a fresh corn ear in the mouth; and the dead body of a flying squirrel was near the boa’s head. Flying squirrel, being the size of a hare, takes snakes as its food. This is a fantastic thunder.

龙卷风

　　2004年7月20日下午6时20分许，湖南省株洲县仙井乡关王村燕窝组及新屋组遭遇一阵只持续了一分钟的“怪风”突袭，40户房顶被掀开，村民们疑为是“鬼在作怪”。后来，湖南株洲市的气象专家考察证实，“怪风”其实是一场龙卷风。

　　2000年7月一天的午饭后，家住江苏高邮市甘垛镇启南村的王某去田里锄草。大约3点钟左右，突然风雨交加、天昏地暗，她便背向风雨蜷曲身子蹲在田埂上。风力越来越大，突然有一股力量将她掀上天空约30米高。这时她根本不敢看，仍蜷曲成一团，双手紧紧抓住草帽，她觉得自己没有了重量。不一会，她感到肩头疼痛，睁开眼睛一看，她已经落到了300米以外的水田里。

　　江苏省7月份是龙卷风易发期，但这么大的龙卷风实属罕见。

　　2000年7月的一天，“天上下鱼”的情形使一向对下雨很有研究的英国人懵了。那天，一阵电闪雷鸣之后，英格兰东部的大雅茅斯渔港竟然下起了鲱鱼。

　　气象专家对这种情况解释说，“鱼雨”是由一种小型的海上龙卷风引起的。

Tornadoes

　　At about 18:20 of July 20, 2004, Yanwo and Xinwu, two small resident groups belonging to the Village of Guanwang in Xianjing Township, Zhuzhou County, Hunan Province of China were suddenly hit by a strange windstorm for only 1 minute. Roofs of 40 households in the area were blown down. Many villagers thought that “this was done by ghosts”. After careful researches done by the meteorologists from Zhuzhou City, it was confirmed that the strange wind is actually a tornado. 

　　One day in July 2000, a woman surnamed Wang in Qinan Village of Ganduo Town in Gaoyou City, Jiangsu Province of China, after having her lunch, went to her farmland to weed. At about 15:00, it began raining suddenly and blew hard. With the sun completely shut out it became dark all over. Then, curling her body, she squatted down quickly with her back against the wind. The wind became even stronger. All of a sudden, a burst of fierce wind blew her to the sky about 30 meters high. At this moment she did not dare to look around at all. She felt herself weightless, but she still curled her body into a ball and grasped her straw hat with her hands. In a moment, when she felt aching in the shoulders, she opened her eyes and looked around. She found that she had fallen into a paddy field 300 meters away from where she had been.

　　Though July is the time when tornado occurs easily in Jiangsu Province, China, but such a strong tornado is a seldom occurrence.
One day in July, 2000, it was raining fishes. This muddled the English who used to have a lot of knowledge on rain.During the day, after a gale of lightning and thunders, it was actually raining herrings in a port called Great Yarmouth in eastern England. Though the herrings were dead, they were very fresh. 

　　Explanations on the circumstances from the meteorological experts are: the fish rain was caused by a small-scale tornado on the sea.

　　图片说明：

　　1. 1983年和2002年都在6月11日出现的难得一见的日食景观，让上海和福建等许多地方的天文爱好者一饱眼福。

　　2. 太阳奇观——美丽的日晕。

　　3. “螳螂捕蝉，黄雀在后”：这只鼯鼠正向嘴里叼着猴子而猴子嘴里又衔着玉米棒子的大蟒蛇的眼睛发起攻击。

　　4.飞云冲天  2005年12月10日下午16时10分，北京香山的香炉峰附近，天空突然出现的“龙卷飞云冲天起”的壮观景象。

　　5. 600多岁的气象树在离地面50多厘米处的“树脐”小孔。

　　6. 2004年9月6日下午，数百米高的漏斗形白色龙卷风暴横扫香港国际机场，两部小汽车及大批货物被卷上半空飞舞。

　　Caption: 1. The solar eclipses that were seldom seen in China happened in the same day of June 11, 1983 and 2002. Many astronomical lovers in Shanghai, Fujian Province and many other places enjoyed seeing the astronomical sight.

　　2. Beautiful solar halo.

　　3. The mantis stalks the cicada, unaware of the oriole behind. A flying squirrel is launching an attack on the eye of big boa from behind. The big boa is swallowing a monkey, while the monkey is holding a corn ear in its mouth.

　　4. A tornado soars into the sky. At 16:10 of December 10, 2005, the magnificent view of a tornado soaring into the sky was seen near the Incense-Burner Peak of the Xiangshan Mountain in Beijing City.

　　5. The over 600-year-old weather forecasting tree has a navel-like hole in its body 50 centimeters above ground level.

　　6. In the afternoon of September 6, 2004, a tornado swept Hong Kong International Airport. This tornado looks like a huge white funnel. It’s about hundreds meters in height. Two mini-trucks and large quantities of goods were blown into the air.

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