Welcome to Learning English, a daily 30-minute program from the Voice of America.

I'm Katie Weaver.

And I'm Mario Ritter Jr.

This program is designed for English learners.

So we speak a little slower slower and we use words and phrases

especially written for people learning English. On today's program, Jill Robbins and I have a story

about a new theory climate scientists have about the deadly

storms that have affected Europe. Brian Lynn reports on NASA's latest effort to find out exactly

how much water there is on the moon. Finally, Jill and Andrew Smith bring you the lesson of the day,

teaching about English pronunciation and idioms.

But first, here's Jill.

Even for a period of extreme weather, this autumn has had more than the usual weather disasters.

The Spanish province, Valencia, has seen the latest incident of massive and deadly flooding in Europe.

Heavy downpours also hit France, Austria, and Czechia this fall.

Italy has had two major floods, once in September and then again in October.

More than 200 people have been killed in the flooding in Spain.

At the same time, over half of the United States

experiences an almost rain-free October. Scientists studying the recent weather say the heavy rains

are probably connected to climate change in two ways.

They say a warmer atmosphere holds and then releases more moisture.

The other connection is possible changes in the jet stream that could cause extreme weather.

The jet stream is the river of air above land that moves weather systems around the planet.

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