这几天你是不是已经开始感受到暖暖的春意和煦的春光？但是俄罗斯的一些地方却还在下雪。虽说下雪在俄罗斯来说并不是什么新闻，不过要说雪的颜色是橙色可就不多见了。上个周末，俄罗斯、保加利亚和罗马尼亚等多个欧洲东部国家都下起了橙雪。社交媒体上也流传着各种各样的照片。比如在俄罗斯索契：

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.远远看去，竟不知这是在滑雪还是……滑沙，你们感受下：

也难怪有社交媒体用户吐槽：“我们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……滑雪胜地为何惨遭涂色？冬奥名城为何变了火星？这背后是神秘的力量还是邪恶的阴谋？（捂脸~）欢迎大家收看今天的走近科学！造成橙雪的原因实际上是沙尘，而且是从北非的撒哈拉沙漠远道而来。The usually powdery white snow turned colors due to a sandstorm that blew across the Sahara Desert in North Africa.这股沙暴从撒哈拉开始，穿越希腊等国，到达俄罗斯，就连美国宇航局的卫星图上都能看到其轨迹。The sandstorm made its way through Greece up to Russia and was so big that it could actually be seen via NASA satellite imagery.

手边有世界地图的朋友们可以比划一下，这条路线有多远……英国气象局的气象学家 Steven Keates接受《独立报》采访时表示：“橙色雪中有很多源于北非和撒哈拉的浮沙或浮尘，这些浮沙和浮尘源于沙漠中形成的沙尘暴。”"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. “沙尘被吹到高空中后，又散布到其他地方。美国宇航局的卫星图像显示，大气中的很多沙尘都飘过了地中海上空。在下雨或下雪时，如果空中有沙尘，就会一起落到地面。”"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."

不过，橙雪也并非第一次出现了。2007年，西伯利亚多个城镇就曾出现了更严重的橙雪现象，雪的味道不仅难闻，而且手感摸上去很滑腻。根据俄罗斯环境监测部门的说法，当时的橙雪很有可能是化学污染的结果，雪里还有大量的铁、酸和硝酸盐。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