科普：龙卷风来时，要不要打开窗户？

龙卷风马上就要来临了，你正身处温暖舒适的房屋里，你只有几分钟的时间做些什么来防止龙卷风可能带来的伤害。你是应该打开窗户来让屋内外的气压达到平衡，防止窗户的炸裂;还是应该紧闭窗户，赶紧躲到你认为最安全的地方去?

Before we answer the question, let's talk a little bit about tornadoes. Whirling, stormy twisters create a path of unholy destruction everywhere they go. Dervishes with so much pressure built up that they pop open houses like so many tight seams, and rip roofs off buildings. Do you see what we're getting at here?

在回答这个问题之前，我们先来谈谈龙卷风吧。它们带着暴风雨急转着向前进，只在身后留下一条毁灭之路。龙卷风的气压太大了，它们会将房屋外墙挤出一条条裂缝，然后直接掀起房顶。那么我们在这里得到什么了吗?

Tornadoes aren't going to calm down when they encounter an open window. They're going to blow right through it and never look back. But of course, that's the short answer to the question. Where, exactly, did we get the idea that opening up a house to equalize pressure in a tornado would work? And is there some other strategy that might help?

所以，当龙卷风遇到一扇开着的窗户时，它们并不会因此平静下来。它们会直接穿过去，将房屋摧毁。我们到底是从哪里得到这样的想法：在龙卷风中打开窗户来平衡压力是有用的?

First off, you weren't just hearing old wives' tales. It really was the standard wisdom for a while that the extreme pressure of a tornado would less affect a house if you opened it up, to allow equalization between outside and in. The thought was that if you left your windows closed, the low pressure of the twister would cause the higher pressure in the house to push out.

首先声明一下，这不并是老太太的无稽之谈。在比较短暂的时间里，龙卷风所带来的极端压力不会对房屋产生影响。如果此时你打开窗户，可以让外部气压和内部气压保持平衡。提出“打开窗户来平衡压力”的人们是这样想的：如果你关上窗户，龙卷风带来的低压会导致房屋里的压力增大，最终这些压力将会把房屋撑到炸开。

Now, when this theory was actually put to the test? Researchers found it didn't hold up. Leaving windows open actually caused the force of the tornado to push up on the roof of the house, while the gusts of the twister lifted the roof. Open windows and doors, in other words, resulted in an airborne roof .

但是当这个理论真正接受考验的时候，研究人员发现这种情况并不成立。打开窗户会将龙卷风的力量集中到房顶上，然后房顶就会被龙卷风掀起。换句话说，如果你打开了窗户和门，你的屋顶会被更快地掀起。

A tornado is much too strong to "equalize" with the pressure of a house, and if it wants to let itself in through open windows or doors — you better believe it has an aggressive way of doing it. Instead of wasting time running to unlatch locks or open shutters, get yourself to a safe place in the house, hunker down and wait it out.

龙卷风所带来的低压系统太强大了，不可能和房屋内的气压“平衡”，如果它通过开着的窗户或门进入房屋内了，你就只能祈祷了。所以当龙卷风来临时，不要浪费时间去打开门或者打开百叶窗，你只需要在房屋里找到一个安全的地方，蹲下来等待就好。