virga

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Philip Hudson
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Location: Texas

virga

Postby Philip Hudson » Sun Mar 28, 2021 3:02 am

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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Slava
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Re: virga

Postby Slava » Mon Mar 29, 2021 6:44 pm

That's rather a cheat, isn't it? I mean, how do you get that lovely petrichor if the rain never hits the ground?
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

Philip Hudson
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 2784
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2006 4:41 am
Location: Texas

Re: virga

Postby Philip Hudson » Mon Mar 29, 2021 7:14 pm

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.
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.

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Slava
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 8040
Joined: Thu Sep 28, 2006 9:31 am
Location: Finger Lakes, NY

Re: virga

Postby Slava » Mon Mar 29, 2021 9:00 pm

Very nice. Is this a recent composition, or something you wrote some time ago?
Life is like playing chess with chessmen who each have thoughts and feelings and motives of their own.

Philip Hudson
Great Grand Panjandrum
Posts: 2784
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2006 4:41 am
Location: Texas

Re: virga

Postby Philip Hudson » Mon Mar 29, 2021 10:00 pm

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.
It is dark at night, but the Sun will come up and then we can see.


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