美国加州火灾蔓延 居民仿佛置身火星
近期，美国南加州的野火已经烧毁了近35平方公里的土地，迫使超3000名居民撤离家园。蔓延的大火烧红了加州的天空，居民仿佛置身火星。
本周三（9月9日），加州旧金山湾区景象恍若火星。
The Bay Area in California awoke Wednesday to a scene straight out of Mars.
橘色甚至红色的天空笼罩在旧金山、奥克兰和伯克利上空，灰烬四处飘散，野火在远处肆虐。
Orange and even red skies blanketed San Francisco, Oakland and Berkeley, and ash rained down, with wildfires raging far in the distance.
美国有线电视新闻网（CNN）气象学家贾德森·琼斯说：“当大火附近的烟雾和灰烬变得更浓时，就会遮天蔽日，白昼如夜。”
"When the smoke and ash get even thicker close to the wildfires, it can cut the sunlight out completely, making it look like the dead of night," CNN meteorologist Judson Jones said.
居民们打开灯，窗外铁锈色的天空看起来就像夜晚。风从远处把野火的烟雾吹来。大溪镇的大火和北部建筑群大火都在200英里（约合321公里）开外，但在湾区可以感觉到大火在熊熊燃烧。俄勒冈州的塞勒姆等其他地方也正在经历类似末日般的天光。
Residents turned on lights, looking into a rust-colored sky that made it look like nighttime. Winds are carrying the wildfire smoke from afar. Both the Creek Fire and the North Complex Fire are burning more than 200 miles away, yet their presence could be felt in the Bay Area. Other places, such as Salem, Oregon, are experiencing similar apocalyptic glows.
湾区空气质量管理区女发言人艾琳·德梅里特告诉CNN，肆虐加州的野火产生的大量浓烟已经导致湾区连续25天发布了“避免外出”警报。这是有记录以来为期最长的不健康空气质量警报，此前的记录是2018年坎普野火期间连续14天的警报。
The massive plumes of smoke generated by the wildfires raging across California have led to the longest stretch of unhealthy air quality alerts on record in the Bay Area, with 25 straight days of "Spare the Air" alerts, Erin DeMerritt, Bay Area Air Quality Management District spokeswoman, told CNN. The previous record was 14 consecutive days during the 2018 Camp Fire.
琼斯说：“烟雾和灰烬就像是大自然版的Ins滤镜。空气中的微粒会折射阳光，就像太阳升起或落山时空气中的微粒一样。”
"The smoke and ash are acting like nature's version of an Instagram filter," Jones said. "The particles in the air are refracting sunlight similar to the way small air particles do when the sun sets or rises."
refract [rɪˈfrækt]：vt.使折射
The particles scatter the shorter wavelengths of blue and green, making us unable to see them. The longer wavelengths of red and yellow pass through the bottom, giving us this "haunting" effect, Jones said.
橘色的天空笼罩着旧金山，这让斯内哈·帕蒂尔感觉像是在另一个星球上。
Orange skies covered San Francisco, making Sneha Patil feel like she was on another planet.
“太离奇了，”帕蒂尔写道。“感觉就像我一觉醒来看到了火星的天空。”
"It was surreal," Patil wrote. "It felt like I had woken up to the skies in Mars!"
来自奥克兰的米歇尔·麦基恩看到她所在社区的家庭上午10点还亮着灯。
Michelle McKeown of Oakland saw homes in her neighborhood with lights on at 10 am.
麦基恩告诉CNN：“这感觉很怪异也很恐怖，像是世界末日。我从1988年起就住在湾区，从来没有见过天空呈现出这种如世界末日般的景象。”
"It feels eerie, apocalyptic and frightening," McKeown told CNN. "I've lived in the Bay Area since 1988 and never experienced such doom coming from the sky."
eerie[ˈɪəri]：adj.可怕的；怪异的
The skies burned red over a vintage clothing store in Oakland. Even though it looked like this, it didn't smell like smoke, said Maya Messoriano, owner of Minds Eye Vintage store.
当地乐队“空船”在Ins上发文称：“至少这看起来像是一场真正的大灾难。”
本周三，气候科学家彼得·格莱克试图拍下他在伯克利的家周围的黑暗天空，但他表示，照相机拍得不太好。
Climate scientist Peter Gleick tried to capture the dark skies around his Berkeley home on Wednesday, saying the camera didn't do it justice.
“我从1978年以来一直住在北加州，”格莱克在给CNN的信中写道。“我从未见过这样的天空。现在（上午10:15）就像午夜，但天空不是黑色，而是深红色。”
"I've lived in northern California since 1978," Gleick wrote to CNN. "I have NEVER seen skies like this. It's like midnight out there now (at 10:15am) but instead of black skies, they're dark, dark red."
格莱克研究气候科学已有35年，他是太平洋研究所的创始人，该研究所是位于奥克兰的一个独立的无党派气候和水研究中心。
Gleick, the founder of the Pacific Institute, an independent nonpartisan climate and water research center in Oakland, has studied climate science for 35 years.
他说，他在窗外看到的是气候变化的迹象。
What he saw outside his window is a sign of climate change, he said.
他说：“气候变化显著而明确地影响着野火：更高的热量和温度，更多的干旱，更多的枯树，更严重的极端天气，包括风。”
"Climate change is clearly and unambiguously influencing the wildfires: higher heat and temperatures, more drought, more dead trees, greater extreme weather -- including winds," he said.
来源：中国日报网英语点津 编辑：许雅宁
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