A little virga

OK, so this morning, there were 1.3 million still without power, a large percentage of those in Kentucky, where they have a record number of power outages as a result of this winter ice storm. The temperatures here in south Georgia today are dropping. The high yesterday and today only got to the mid-50's and we are headed back down to freezing. Yuck.

I was treated this morning, though, to some heavily sheared virga.

In meteorology, VIRGA is an observable streak or shaft of precipitation that falls from a cloud but evaporates before reaching the ground. It is also common in the Southern United States during summer (it's obviously confused.)

Virga can produce dramatic and beautiful scenes, especially during a red sunset. The red light can be caught by the streamers of falling precipitation, and winds may push the bottom ends of the virga so it falls at an angle, making the clouds appear to have commas attached. (Exactly!)

The word virga is derived from Latin meaning twig or branch. ~Wikipedia

It wasn't my first time seeing virga, but it was my first time photographing it. There was so much of it this morning, several of the clouds along the way to work were producing virga, so it was neat.

Yesterday, I had a beautiful little cirrocumulus/altocumulus/contrail display over my water tower. You know me...I hope you have a wonderful weekend!
~Dewdrop