I am looking back home at the reports of winter weather in the U.S., and it seems like...it seems like winter mayhem. There is an ice storm down South, stories of power outages, treacherous highways and, tragically, deaths. There is major snow where I live in New York-another pounding in an already overlong winter. The commute is a mess and the mayor is warning everyone to stay off the roads, when he isn't taking grief for keeping the schools open.
        回顧了美國國內有關冬日天氣的報導，感覺像一場大破壞。我在紐約所住的地方下起了大雪――這是已經太過漫長的冬天給人的又一個打擊。交通一片混亂，市長警告所有人不要上路，但對學校照常上課造成的怨聲載道充耳不聞。

        And here, at the Winter Olympics in Russia, it is T-shirt weather. Not just for spectators. For athletes. Outdoors. On Thursday, the U.S. slopestyle skier Bobby Brown competed in a T-shirt. On Feb. 13.
        而在冬奧會舉辦地俄羅斯索契，這裡的天氣可以穿T恤衫。
        It is as weird as it sounds. By now you have surely heard it is warm in Sochi, even in the mountains, where snow is giving way to convenience store-style slush. This morning I walked out toward the Olympic stadiums and it was bright and sunny, with only the slightest hint of a chill. There was no need for a jacket. No need for a sweater. Wool socks? Nope. En route to speedskating, I felt as if I was on my way to breakfast in Fort Lauderdale.
        這種情況跟聽上去一樣怪。但山區的雪已經變成了便利店那種泥濘。週四上午，一路上陽光明媚，只有最微弱的一絲絲寒意。往滑速賽場時，我覺得自己是在去Fort Lauderdale吃早餐的路上。
        By midafternoon, the temperature was hovering in the low 60s. Sunglasses weather. Frozen mango daiquiri weather.
        到下午3點左右，氣溫徘徊在16攝氏度左右。這種天氣適合戴著太陽鏡，來一杯冰凍芒果戴奇利雞尾酒。

        Let's be clear: It's crass to write merrily about beautiful weather when the weather's so tough elsewhere. (More than tough-'catastrophic' was one word the National Weather Service used in warning about the ice storm.) It's like posting a photo of yourself waist deep in a Cabo pool during the holidays. Good for you. Nobody wants to hear about it.
        需要說明的是，在其他地方的天氣如此惡劣（比惡劣更有過之――美國國家氣象局在有關冰暴的警告中用了“災難性的”一詞）之時興高采列地描寫美好天氣是愚蠢之舉。
        Still, the summer feeling at these un-Wintery Winter Games is undeniably strange. There has been temperate weather at the Winter Games before-Vancouver was often a misty, mild 50 degrees-and palm-treed Sochi never claimed to be a Siberian tundra. But the contrast between these Russian Games and the brutal U.S. winter is stunning.   
       以往比如溫哥華冬奧會時就氣候濕潤，溫度在10攝氏度左右，長滿棕櫚樹的索契也從來都與西伯利亞凍土無緣。

        'I think it's roughly 20 degrees warmer here than it was in Houston when I left,' said Christopher Hayes, who was at Shayba Arena, attending the U.S. men's hockey game versus Slovakia, supporting a childhood pal from Michigan, goaltender Ryan Miller. Hayes was dressed in a fading, floral, red-white-and-blue Hawaiian shirt that he'd worn to other Winter Games. But this was the first Olympics that he'd worn the shirt outside. 'Usually it's buried under 10 layers.'   
        為了支持守門員 Ryan Miller、在Shayba冰球中心觀看美國對斯洛伐克男子比賽的Christopher Hayes說，我感覺，這裡的溫度比離開時的休士頓高了20華氏度。Hayes說，以往我都得在這件夏威夷衫外面再套10層衣服。
        Inside the arena, hopeful souvenir vendors were gamely trying to sell fuzzy hats and rainbow-fingered gloves. Outside, Jason Burchard of Dallas was comparing the Sochi afternoon to Northern California. 'It's like San Francisco,' Burchard said.   
        冰球中心內，滿懷希望的紀念品小販努力地推銷絨毛帽子和彩虹手套。
        'It's cooler in San Francisco,' countered Mike Durgavich, from Washington, D.C. Durgavich mentioned the coastal breezes in the Bay Area. 'You don't have that off the Black Sea.' He joked that he was disappointed by the heat. 'I want to see bears roaming the streets,' Durgavich said.

        There were no bears roaming the streets, unless you counted the unnerving Olympic mascot bears. And warm weather does not impact play at the coastal cluster, where all of the events are played inside indoor stadiums. In fact, if not for the mountain sports, you could play the Winter Games in Daytona Beach, so long as you had the facilities. (Not suggesting this. Not suggesting Daytona 2022.) But the sun is acutely a factor in the mountains, where skiers have groaned about conditions, and events have been moved up earlier in the day to take advantage of the early a.m. cold.   
        不過對山地項目來說，太陽的影響還是很大的。滑雪運動員抱怨不已，而且日間的項目已經往前挪，希望利用清晨比較冷的時候進行比賽。
        This week it is hard to come up with a summer sport that would be uncomfortable in Sochi. Maybe swimming? Then again, there are swimmers at the pebbly Black Sea, sunbathing, wading in. It is a blissful climate for golf and tennis and baseball and outdoor basketball. Tennis would be fantastic in Sochi. Touch football. Beach yoga. Shuffleboard. It might not be ideal for a marathon. Journal Olympic maestro Matthew Futterman, a dedicated distance runner, thinks it might be a wee too hot. Seriously.   
        本周，簡直想不出哪種夏季項目不適合在索契進行了。對長跑情有獨鍾的奧運大師Futterman，他說，在索契跑馬拉松的話太熱了，真的。

        For the final word on ideal weather, it's always instructive to ask a Floridian. At the hockey game, I bumped into Tom Ronde, visiting from Englewood, Fla., south of Sarasota. This was his eighth Olympics, he said. Ronde was loving everything about Sochi. He loved the city. He loved the people. He loved the temperature. And he was prepared. 'I have a pair of shorts,' he said. 'I'm going to wear them.'
        有關理想的天氣，最後說一句，問問佛羅里達人總是有益的。
Englewood 的 Ronde說，這是第八次觀看冬奧。他愛這個城市，愛這裡的人，愛這裡的溫度。而且他已經做好了準備。他說，我有一條大短褲，該穿上了。