What's it called when you see rain in the distance?


The other day a patron asked what the meteorological term for when you see rain falling in the distance. He said had a bet with a friend, and as I am more than happy to use information-seeking skills to stack the odds, I started searching. It turns out, as I learned, the term he was looking for was "virga."

According to the National Weather Service, virga is actually "Precipitation falling from the base of a cloud and evaporating before it reaches the ground." It's common enough of a phenomenon that I could picture it when he asked, but if you don't know what that looks like, check out this image from Wikipedia. 

640px-Nimbostratus_virga
Thanks to Simon Eugster for the wiki pic!

 

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Comments

Weather questions are the best. I can't wait to use the word virga next time I see rain in the distance.

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