地球上的极端风暴终会结束

Weather forecasts can get extreme in the land of Hyrule, in the Nintendo series The Legend of Zelda. A downpour in the coastal province of Faron, for instance, prevents Link, the game’s hero, from reaching Calora Lake. And con- stant lightning and rain threaten the skybound Thunderhead Isles. These storms end only once Link completes a series of quests. The threat of never-ending storms makes for moody game- play. But real storms “can’t last forever,” says Stephanie Spera, a physical geographer at the University of Richmond in Virginia. Storms result from imbalances between moisture and temperature. Though violent at times, thun- derstorms help redistribute heat, moisture and electrical charges. …