英國下起“蘋果雨” 能砸出多少個牛頓來？
After a series of storm warnings, drivers in the evening rush hour were prepared for almost anything. Except, that is, for it to start raining apples.
因爲此前一直收到一連串的風暴警報，所以傍晚下班高峯期的司機們都已經做好迎接各種惡劣天氣的準備了。不過他們可能沒想到的是，天上竟然下起了蘋果雨。
Scores of them battered car roofs and windscreens before landing in the road at a busy junction in Coundon, Coventry. The deluge of fruit brought traffic to a standstill at 6.45pm on Monday.
蘋果從天而降，砸在英國考文垂市的一條交通繁忙的大街上。事故發生在週一下午的6：45，不少汽車的車頂和擋風玻璃被砸到。蘋果的突然襲擊造成了當地交通的短暫中斷。
One motorist, who was travelling with her husband, said: ‘The apples fell out of nowhere. They were small and green and hit the bonnet hard. Everyone had to stop their cars suddenly.’
一對自駕車旅行的夫婦表示：“蘋果不知打哪兒突然掉下來，個頭很小的青蘋果，狠狠地砸中了我們汽車的引擎蓋。大家都不得不急剎車。”
The phenomenon is believed to be down to a mini tornado which touched down elsewhere, sucking apples from the ground or from trees. Such a powerful vacuum could have travelled for many miles before the tornado’s energy dissipated, depositing the fruit over Coventry.
據信這一現象可能是由於附近某處的果園有小型的龍捲風出現，把蘋果從地上或樹上揪下來了。龍捲風像強力吸塵器一般，在能量消散前帶着這些蘋果飛了一段路，最後把蘋果掉在了考文垂的大街上。
Another theory is that the apples could have fallen from the hold of a plane.
還有一種說法認爲蘋果是從路過的飛機上掉下來的。
Brian Meakins, 63, was stunned when he opened his front door and found his garden full of smashed apples. The retired forklift truck driver said: ‘At first I assumed kids must have thrown them because we do get the occasional egg and apple thrown but there’s way too many for that.’
63歲的退休叉車司機Brian Meakins表示，在他打開前門看見花園裏一片狼藉滿地砸碎的蘋果時，簡直是目瞪口呆。“我開始以爲是淘氣的孩子們搗亂，他們有時間會把雞蛋或蘋果丟到我們家院子裏。不過這次看起來也太多了點！”
Jim Dale, senior meteorologist from British Weather Services, said the event was probably caused by ‘returning polar maritime air’.
英國氣象服務的高級氣象學家Jim Dale表示這場蘋果雨很有可能是因爲迴流的極地海洋氣團造成的。
‘Essentially these events are caused when a vortex of air, kind of like a mini tornado, lifts things off the ground rising up into the atmosphere until the air around it causes them to fall to earth again.
“實際上這些都是由於氣流漩渦引起的，這有點像小型的龍捲風。氣流把物體從地面舉起來，上升到大氣中，直到周圍的空氣再次讓他們降落到地面上。”
‘We’ve all heard of fish and frogs falling from the sky and apples is certainly unusual because they have some weight to them but it is not out of the realms of possibility.’
“以前我們都聽說過魚和青蛙從天空中掉下來的事件，不過蘋果還蠻少見的，因爲蘋果有點重。不過這不是完全沒有可能。”
