cyclone：a storm or system of winds that rotates about a center of low atmospheric pressure
Hotter weather has never been recorded. The UN says the first week of July had the highest average global temperature ever measured. This could occur significant effects on the planet hurricanes, tropical cyclones, drought, heavy rain all that become more likely as a result.
1, We’re experiencing Earth’s hottest weather in 120,000 years, and it’s just getting started
It’s the warmest on the earth in 120,000 years since the last Ice age. ‘Just getting started’ means that there is a lot come. In the case of this story, it’s all negative. While the current high temperatures are bad news, they’re only going to get much worse. In fact, they’re just getting started. And we can use this as well for positive things as well. For example, we’ve got a lot of things we can tell you about English and we’re just getting started.
2, ‘Uncharted territory’: UN declares first week of July world’s hottest ever recorded
‘Uncharted territory’ means that it’s not on any maps. It’s a place that no one’s been to before, or at least they haven’t made a map of it yet. So in terms of the weather, we are seeing things that we’ve never seen before- we’re in uncharted territory. That means there’s no maps or anything to tell us what to do next, and we can use it to talk about anything that we haven’t worked out how to deal with yet. For example, when we think about people using AI to cheat in exams, we’re in ‘uncharted territory’.
3, Record-breaking heat scorches communities around the world
This is from an article that focus on the impact of these high temperatures. If you scorch something, you burn the surface of something with extreme heat. It doesn’t literally mean hat the people are being burnt, but it’s definite having a negative impact on them. Another metaphorical use of scorch is to criticize strongly. For example, I hope we don’t get scorched in the comments in this episode of News Review.
