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On September 8th Kim Jong Un, the North’s dictator, assembled his top brass to review the damage a week earlier from the second of the typhoons, Maysak, which destroyed 2,000 homes and washed away 60km of roads and 57 bridges. As the meeting took place, the third, Haishen, was sweeping inland. Although it had weakened before it made landfall, Haishen was the first “supertyphoon” of the season. It packed sustained winds of 135 knots (250kph).
9月8日，朝鮮獨裁者金正恩召集朝鮮高層去審查一周之前的第二次臺風“美莎克”造成的損失，這次臺風摧毀了兩千座房屋，沖毀了60公里的道路和57座橋梁。就在金正恩舉行相關會議時，第三次臺風“海神”縱貫朝鮮內陸。盡管臺風“海神”在登陸前已經減弱，但它還是本季第一個“超級臺風”。它的風速持續達到135節（合每小時250公里）。
Most of the western Pacific, the world’s biggest typhoon factory, has actually seen unusually few this season. Meteorologists had predicted that. Thanks to a regular rhythm in the climate known as the El Nino-Southern Oscillation, their models said tradewinds in lower latitudes would be stronger than usual, making it harder for typhoons to form.
盡管西太平洋地區是世界上最大的臺風工廠，但實際上，這個季節的臺風并不多見。氣象學家預測到了這一點。由于厄爾尼諾-南方濤動氣候的周期固定，氣候模型表明，低緯度地區的信風將比平時更強，使臺風更難形成。
Yet something man-made may be at work farther north. A facet of global warming is that the tropics are expanding. That may account for increased monsoon flooding and a shift north in the intensity of typhoons. Surface temperatures in a huge patch of ocean south of Japan have been at record highs. The heat gives strength to the typhoons passing over. As Maysak unwound, the energy it dumped into the jet stream may have contributed to savage swings from hot to cold in western America.
然而有些由人為原因引發的氣候可能會在更遠的北方發揮作用。全球變暖體現的一個方面是熱帶地區正在擴張。由此可能引發了雨季洪水增多和臺風強度北移的現象。日本南部一大片海域的表面溫度一直處于歷史最高水平。高溫為經過的臺風賦予了力量。隨著臺風“美莎克”的平息，它注入急流中的能量可能導致了美國西部從熱到冷的劇烈震蕩。
Japan and South Korea grew rich by pouring concrete. Construction—dams, levees, pumping stations—still delights planners confronting threats from the weather. A shrine for the world’s disaster experts is a cathedral-like cistern under Tokyo, a 6.3km-network of tunnels and tanks supported by 500-tonne columns.
日本和韓國靠澆注混凝土致富。盡管規劃者面臨著氣候威脅，但他們還是為水壩、堤壩和泵站的建設而感到高興。對于世界災難學家，位于東京地下的一個類似神廟的蓄水池就是圣地，這個6.3km長的地下通道和水罐網絡，由500噸重的柱子支撐著。
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