這幾天你是不是已經開始感受到暖暖的春意和煦的春光？但是俄羅斯的一些地方卻還在下雪。雖說下雪在俄羅斯來說并不是什么新聞，不過要說雪的顏色是橙色可就不多見了。上個周末，俄羅斯、保加利亞和羅馬尼亞等多個歐洲東部國家都下起了橙雪。社交媒體上也流傳著各種各樣的照片。比如在俄羅斯索契：

Orange-tinted snow has swept across Russia, Bulgaria, Romania and other countries in eastern Europe. Pictures of the snow have shown up on social media including from skiers at a resort near the Russian city of Sochi.遠遠看去，竟不知這是在滑雪還是……滑沙，你們感受下：

也難怪有社交媒體用戶吐槽：“我們今天就是在火星上滑雪”。"We're skiing on Mars today," exclaimed one social media user as he skied down the slopes, according to CNN.

那么……滑雪勝地為何慘遭涂色？冬奧名城為何變了火星？這背后是神秘的力量還是邪惡的陰謀？（捂臉~）歡迎大家收看今天的走近科學！造成橙雪的原因實際上是沙塵，而且是從北非的撒哈拉沙漠遠道而來。The usually powdery white snow turned colors due to a sandstorm that blew across the Sahara Desert in North Africa.這股沙暴從撒哈拉開始，穿越希臘等國，到達俄羅斯，就連美國宇航局的衛(wèi)星圖上都能看到其軌跡。The sandstorm made its way through Greece up to Russia and was so big that it could actually be seen via NASA satellite imagery.

手邊有世界地圖的朋友們可以比劃一下，這條路線有多遠……英國氣象局的氣象學家 Steven Keates接受《獨立報》采訪時表示：“橙色雪中有很多源于北非和撒哈拉的浮沙或浮塵，這些浮沙和浮塵源于沙漠中形成的沙塵暴。”"There has been a lot of lifted sand or dust originating from North Africa and the Sahara, from sand storms which have formed in the desert," meteorologist Steven Keates from the UK Met Office told The Independent. “沙塵被吹到高空中后，又散布到其他地方。美國宇航局的衛(wèi)星圖像顯示，大氣中的很多沙塵都飄過了地中海上空。在下雨或下雪時，如果空中有沙塵，就會一起落到地面。”"As the sand gets lifted to the upper levels of the atmosphere, it gets distributed elsewhere. Looking at satellite imagery from NASA, it shows a lot of sand and dust in the atmosphere drifting across the Mediterranean. When it rains or snows, it drags down whatever is up there, if there is sand in the atmosphere."

不過，橙雪也并非第一次出現了。2007年，西伯利亞多個城鎮(zhèn)就曾出現了更嚴重的橙雪現象，雪的味道不僅難聞，而且手感摸上去很滑膩。根據俄羅斯環(huán)境監(jiān)測部門的說法，當時的橙雪很有可能是化學污染的結果，雪里還有大量的鐵、酸和硝酸鹽。In 2007, residents of Siberian towns reported foul-smelling orange snow that was oily to the touch. According to Russia’s environmental watchdog, however, the snow was possibly the result of chemical pollution as it contained large amounts of iron, acids and nitrates