Virga Above South Pond, Connecticut
June 07, 2006
Provided and copyright by: Steve Kluge, Fox Lane High School
Summary authors & editors: Steve Kluge
During a mid April drive on Mt. Riga Road along the spine of the Berkshire Mountains, near the Connecticut border with New York and Massachusetts, my wife and I stopped on the west shore of South Pond to snap a few photos of the pond and sky. The evening air had produced a few thick cumulus clouds, quite likely pushed to instability by their rise over the Berkshires -- almost 1000 ft. (305 m) higher than the surrounding lowlands. The gray 'drapes' hanging from the clouds are called virga - precipitation that evaporates, as it passes through drier air, before reaching the ground. As threatening as the sky looked, only one or two drops of rain hit the windshield of our car as these clouds passed over a few moments later.
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