The Fog of San Francisco
Photo by Sydney Herron
Fog is a life force in the San Francisco Bay Area, and it faces an uncertain future.
A fickle friend
- fickle: 善变的
Fog often whips through the suspension cables.
- whip: 鞭打 / 这里形象地表示: 穿过吊索 - whips through
Tourists are bundled up in new souvenir sweatshirts.
- boundle： 捆绑 / 这里形象地表示: 穿戴者 - boundled up
- souvenir: 纪念品
Fog is fickle — hard to predict, hard to research, even hard to define. It might be the trickiest thing in meteorology to measure. Unlike temperature, humidity, wind or precipitation, there is no reliable gauge for fog. We know how it forms, but we don’t know precisely where it’s going — later today, or in the years ahead.
That is what vexes scientists.
- vex: 使苦恼
Ramifications are huge
- ramification: 后果
It is the reason, from June through August, San Francisco is the coolest major city in the continental United States, maybe the last refuge of refreshing cool air in our warming summers.
- refuge: 避难所
It led me to, among others, researchers who try to capture it, wringing the air of water the way that redwoods do, to see if fog can be a viable water source.
它让我和其他人，还有哪些试图搞清楚红杉树如何从空气中榨取水分的研究人员，都想看看雾是否可以成为可行的水源。
- wring: 拧/绞尽脑汁
- viable: 可行的
The emoji for “foggy” shows a cloud and the top of a suspension-bridge tower that looks suspiciously familiar.
“雾”的表情符号显示了一朵云和一座看起来非常熟悉的悬索桥塔的顶部。🌁
That’s the beauty of San Francisco’s fog: We never know for sure. But as I tell the kids, fog is a good thing. This place wouldn’t be what it is without it.