Word order

Could you help me?

1)   The following sentence is correct and does not sound odd:  "The rain is expected to die down during the late morning, but is expected to gain momentum late in the afternoon/evening, and will continue to gain momentum until late in the night"    [I am not sure if you meant that gaining momentum would continue into the late night, or the rain would continue into the late night.  I think you meant the former, but I may be wrong.]

You need the definite article "the" ["The rain"], because it's obvious from the entire sentence that the rain must have been mentioned previously.  In other words, you are speaking about a specific rainstorm, not rain in general.

More common ways to say "die down" when speaking about rain are:  "The rain is expected to let up during....."

"The rain is expected to taper off during...."

"The rain is expected to keep up until late evening or late at night, but will let up in the early morning."

"It will be in effect into the late night/into late at night"?  If the word "It" refers to the rain, "be in effect" is not correct.


2) Correct:  "Addressing the water issue is just as critical, if not more so, as addressing the energy issue."   

Word order

Could you help me?

1) would it sound odd to say "Rain is expected to die down during the late morning, but it is expected to gain momentum late in the afternoon/evening into late at night/late in the night" "? Yes, this sounds odd.
What about "Rain is expected to keep up until late evening or late at night, but it will let up into the early morning." Much better and more natural.
And "It will be in effect into the late night/into late at night"? 'Effect' adds nothing. Better is "it will last just upto midnight".


2) Do you say "1Addressing the water issue is at least as important as addressing the energy issue." Or "2Addressing the water issue is just as important*, if not more so, than addressing the energy issue" or 3"Addresing the water issue is just as critical, if not more so than, addressing the energy issue."1 is best.

Please, I really need help

*'critical' does not work here since, like 'dead', 'alive', 'known', 'false'.... , it does not admit of comparison, ie: 'very critical', 'quite critical', ... dont work, and the crisis is either there or it isnt, one is either dead or one isnt, a fact is either known or it isnt etc etc.
Thank you!!