virga
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 2784
- Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2006 4:41 am
- Location: Texas
virga
In the south Texas of my youth we seemed always to need rain. Frequently we got rain that didn't reach the ground. This phenomena was named virga in the 1940s. Virga is a description of how it appears, slanted stripes from a cloud downward.
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.
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- Great Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 2784
- Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2006 4:41 am
- Location: Texas
Re: virga
It certainly is discouraging. I wrote this little reflection:
Virga
Gulf clouds overhead
All in a row
Like freight trains moving
Carrying water
Precious freight.
Why not stop here?
Build thunderheads!
Flash and growl!
Drop your precious cargo
On this parch-ed land.
But your calling is north
To meet the arctic air
And merging in marriage
Produce your children,
Myriad drops of rain.
No front reaches this torrid clime.
The aerial cars move on.
No need to linger in this passionless air.
Raindrop children conceived here
Are still-born.
Virga
Gulf clouds overhead
All in a row
Like freight trains moving
Carrying water
Precious freight.
Why not stop here?
Build thunderheads!
Flash and growl!
Drop your precious cargo
On this parch-ed land.
But your calling is north
To meet the arctic air
And merging in marriage
Produce your children,
Myriad drops of rain.
No front reaches this torrid clime.
The aerial cars move on.
No need to linger in this passionless air.
Raindrop children conceived here
Are still-born.
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.
-
- Great Grand Panjandrum
- Posts: 2784
- Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2006 4:41 am
- Location: Texas
Re: virga
I wrote that many years ago. With global warming the rainless clouds are more numerous on the Gulf Coast. There is an invisible line going north through Texas. It is called the rain line. In my lifetime it has moved almost an entire county to the east. Our farm is now on the west side of it. That means even less rain. Now my nephew runs a few cows over what was once prime cotton growing land.
See:
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/ent ... 2%20inches)%20are%20the%20wettest.
See:
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/ent ... 2%20inches)%20are%20the%20wettest.
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.
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