As we know, there are numerous meteorological phenomena and different types of precipitation. Not all raindrops generated within a cloud reach the ground. Occasionally, due to wind or temperature, the precipitation evaporates completely, resulting in a meteorological phenomenon known as a meteorological phenomenon. virgin.
In this article we are going to tell you about the origin of the virga, its characteristics and curiosities.
virgo formation
The raindrops produced inside the clouds do not always reach the ground, sometimes the curtain of precipitation evaporates completely, creating a cloudy feature known in weather vocabulary as virga. These trails can be vertical or sloping, depending on the wind, and sometimes even hang from the clouds in a strange zig-zag pattern.
Virgos are very common in summer due to the heat and dryness of the air near the ground. Raindrops and hail from storm clouds evaporate as they pass through the lower atmosphere that separates the cloud base from the Earth's surface. The end result is what we call a dry storm, which leaves behind up to four drops of water, sometimes accompanied by powerful electronic devices. To better understand the evaporation process related to virga, it is useful to explore the formation of the cirrus clouds and understand its relationship with other similar phenomena.
From the distance, the virga looks like a thin filament hanging from the dark clouds that accompany a storm. Seen against the light, they are significantly less opaque than the clouds from which they originated, especially in their lower parts, where the meteors that compose them eventually evaporate completely, blurring the curtains of the sky.
Virgo can appear in seven of the ten cloud genera. In the special case of cirrocumulus clouds, which are high clouds made entirely of ice crystals, they are endowed with great whiteness due to their high reflectivity, and when they hover over one of these clouds, precipitation occurs; the ice crystals that formed evaporate completely as they pass through the layer of dry air immediately below.
virgo effects
Cloud names and many weather terms come from Latin. Virginia is no exception., means "branch". But the English that describes the formation process of this hydrometeor is also an acronym: Variable Intensity Rain Gradient Aloft, which means that the intensity of the rain gradient varies with altitude.
The evaporation of precipitation is basically the heat of compression generated by the increase in atmospheric pressure near the ground. In our case, Carlos depicted curtains of hail or granulated snow falling at dusk. This has led to the evolution of these Virgos in ochre and reddish hues, with the sun's rays striking them at different angles as night falls, adding spectacular color to the sky and creating a beautiful visual spectacle.
Other types of precipitation
Drizzle
Drizzle is a small precipitation whose water droplets are very small and fall uniformly. Normally, these droplets do not get to wet the ground too much and depend on other factors such as wind speed and relative humidity. For this reason, it is also important to consider the relationship between virga and other types of precipitation, such as drizzle.
Showers
Showers are larger drops that usually fall violently and for a short period of time. Showers usually occur in places where atmospheric pressure decreases and a low pressure center called a storm is created. These showers are related to those clouds of type cumulonimbus that form too quickly, so the water droplets become large.
Hail and snowflakes
Precipitations can also be given in solid form. For it, In clouds, ice crystals must form at the top of the cloud and at very low temperatures around -40°C. These crystals can grow at the expense of water droplets at a very low temperature that freeze on them (being the beginning of the formation of hail) or by joining other crystals to form snowflakes. When they reach a suitable size and due to the action of gravity, they can leave the cloud giving rise to solid precipitation on the surface, if the environmental conditions are appropriate.
Sometimes the snowflakes or the hail that came out of the cloud, if they find a layer of warm air on their way down, they melt before reaching the ground, eventually giving rise to precipitation in liquid form, which is related to other known meteorological phenomena, such as the virga itself.
Precipitation forming clouds
The type of precipitation depends fundamentally on the environmental conditions in which the cloud forms and the type of cloud that forms. In this case, the most common types of precipitation are frontal, topographic and convective or stormy.
Frontal precipitation is precipitation in which clouds are associated with cold fronts. The intersection between the warm and cold fronts forms the clouds that produce frontal precipitation. Cold fronts form when cold air masses push up and push away warmer air masses. As it rises, it cools and forms a cloud. In the case of a warm front, a warm air mass slides over another air mass that is colder than it.
When the formation of a cold front occurs, normally the type of cloud that forms is a Cumulonimbus or AltocumulusThese clouds tend to have greater vertical development and, therefore, trigger more intense and larger precipitation. Furthermore, their droplet size is much larger than that of clouds forming in a warm front, which can provide interesting information for the study of virga, as can the precipitation associated with convective systems.
Clouds that form on a warm front have a more stratified shape and are usually Nimbostratus, Stratus, Stratocumulus. Typically, the precipitation that occurs on these fronts is lighter, like drizzle. In the case of precipitation from thunderstorms, also known as 'convective systems,' the clouds are very vertically developed (cumulonimbus) so that They will produce intense and short-lived rains, often torrential.
I hope that with this information you can learn more about virga, how it is produced and its characteristics.