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From BBC Learning English,
this is Learning English from the News,
our podcast about the news headlines.
In this programme,
the strongest storm of the year,
Hurricane Melissa, hits the Caribbean.
Hello, I'm Beth.
And I'm Phil.
In this programme,
we look at one big news story
and the vocabulary in the headlines
that will help you understand it.
You can find all the vocabulary
and headlines from this episode,
as well as
a worksheet on our website,
bbclearningenglish.com.
OK, so let's hear more
about this story, Phil.
Hurricane Melissa hit Jamaica
on Tuesday
as a category five storm with violent
winds that reached a high of 295km/h.
It's also now hit Cuba.
The Jamaican prime minister has
declared the country a 'disaster area'
and warns of 'devastating impacts'.
It will take time to know
exactly how bad the damage is
but we know homes and hospitals
have been badly affected
and there is severe flooding
across Jamaica.
It's the strongest storm
on Earth so far this year,
and is one of the strongest storms
in the Atlantic Ocean this century.
Our first headline is
about the hurricane.
Hurricane Melissa makes landfall
in Jamaica,
and that's from The Guardian,
a newspaper in the UK.
That headline again, Hurricane
Melissa makes landfall in Jamaica.
And that's from The Guardian,
a British newspaper.
So this headline says
Hurricane Melissa has made landfall.
And that's the phrase
we're going to look at.
We know 'land' and 'fall' already,
but this is one word.
So Phil, what does it mean?
Well, it means the moment when
something travelling across the sea
or air reaches the land,
'make' turns it into a verb,
so 'make landfall' means reach land.
So this headline is saying
the hurricane has reached land.
It's hit Jamaica.
Is this phrase often used
for hurricanes?
Yes. You'll often see it in headlines
relating to storms, hurricanes,
or tropical cyclones,
because 'makes landfall' usually means
the moment where the damage begins
and people are really affected.
We can use it for things other
than storms, though, can't we?
Yes. Another example could be
after two weeks at sea,
the sailors finally made landfall.
And we can also use it
metaphorically,
although it's not as common.
So for example, you could say
the business made landfall
in the tech market last year,
and that means the business arrived
and started to operate
in the tech market last year.
We had 'make landfall' - reach land.
For example,
the storm made landfall in
the early hours of Saturday morning.
This is Learning English
from the News, our podcast
about the news headlines. Today,
we're talking about the hurricane
that has hit the Caribbean.
Now the Caribbean Sea is currently
warmer than it normally is
at this time of year
by a couple of degrees,
which has made
this hurricane even more intense.
There haven't been many big storms
in the Atlantic so far this season,
and that means
the warm air and energy
in this area hasn't been used up
in previous storms.
Because of climate change,
warmer conditions like those
in the Caribbean Sea are more likely,
and that makes more extreme
weather events more likely too.
Our next headline is about the
relationship between climate change
and Hurricane Melissa.
And this comes from AP News,
an international news agency.
As the Atlantic Ocean warms,
climate change is fuelling
Hurricane Melissa's ferocity.
That headline again from AP news,
an international news agency.
As the Atlantic Ocean warms,
climate change is fuelling
Hurricane Melissa's ferocity.
This headline connects climate change
and the strength of Hurricane Melissa.
We're focusing
on the word 'fuelling'. Now,
Phil, this makes me think
of petrol and coal.
Well, the noun 'fuel; means a material
that produces energy when it burns
like coal, petrol or gas.
If you literally fuel something,
that's the verb,
you give it the energy
or power to keep going.
But here, 'fuel' is used metaphorically.
The headline means climate change
is making the hurricanes stronger.
It's intensifying it,
but it's not literally giving fuel
to the hurricane.
And the verb 'fuel' is often used
metaphorically in this way.
We can use it to talk about things
that increase your emotion.
For example, his anger fuelled the
argument and made everything worse.
Or we can use it to talk about
increasing an activity like social media
can often fuel the spread of rumours.
You might have noticed that the
examples we gave were not positive.
'Fuel' often suggests adding energy or
momentum in a negative or dangerous way.
We've had 'fuel'
- give energy to something.
For example, the latest
political scandal has fuelled outrage
among the public.
This is Learning English from the News,
our podcast about the news headlines.
Today we're talking about Hurricane
Melissa, which has hit the Caribbean.
A US Air Force Reserve crew known
as the 'Hurricane Hunters',
flew through the centre
of Hurricane Melissa
on Monday to collect data
for the National Hurricane Center.
They recorded wind speeds
of up to 282km/h,
and also filmed the centre
of the storm.
Our next headline comes
from an article about this.
Storm chasers fly
inside the eye of Hurricane Melissa,
and that's from BBC News.
That headline again.
Storm chasers fly
inside the eye of Hurricane Melissa.
And that's from BBC News.
So, this headline describes
people known as storm chasers flying
into the middle of the hurricane.
And we're focusing on 'the eye of'.
The eye of the storm or hurricane
in this headline is an expression
that refers to the middle of the storm.
The eye of a hurricane is actually
quite calm, and the air is quite still,
while the heavy rainfall
and violent winds swirl around it.
So, in this case, the headline
literally means the middle of the storm,
which is where
storm chasers have been flying.
However, it's very common to use
'the eye of the storm' metaphorically
in English to talk
about things other than weather,
isn't it?
That's right.
The phrase can be used to describe
a moment of calm in the middle of chaos.
For example, the manager remained in
the eye of the storm even when she heard
there were going to be even more
difficult times ahead for her team.
This means she remained calm.
But we also often use it to mean
someone or something is
in the centre of a dramatic,
difficult or controversial situation.
And in that case,
the centre isn't necessarily calm.
So, for example, after pictures
of the politician were printed
in the papers, he found himself
in the eye of the storm.
We've had 'the eye of the storm' -
the centre of a storm.
For example,
the eye of the storm passed right
through the middle of our town.
That's it for this episode
of Learning English from the News.
We'll be back next week
with another news story.
If you want to practise
what you've learnt,
go to our website to see more example
sentences and try our free worksheet.
And don't forget to follow us
on social media.
Find us @BBCLearningEnglish
on your favourite platform.
Goodbye for now.
Bye.
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