It happens in dry air, I think. Being able to see it happens best in dry air maybe. Like the cloud is a sponge up there and cannot hold its water. And there isn't atmosphere fogging the view. It seems to evaporate before it hits the ground and often does. Sometimes, wonder of wonders, you're in it. Getting wet, just barely with a cloud directly above you.
That happened. And this sounds silly, but I felt joy to be finally directly under a virga.
Okay, imagine we're following Bob Ross. He has us paint a happy little cloud that lives in our western sky. Ross decides this happy little cloud wants to lose its water so he dries his wide brush that looks like an exterior house brush and whacks it back and forth on the easel leg until it's dry, and to show us how to paint a virga he lifts the dry abused brush to the bottom edge of the happy little cloud and allows his the dry bristles to pick up some darker grayer wet pigment on the bottom, a mere edge, then he drags the brush downward and lifts the brush away from the canvas as he drags down, boom, virga, just like that with one stroke.
And now you get to see it.
I'm telling you, this phase of time lapse obsession is going on longer than I thought it would because I keep seeing great things but I may have to give it up out of sadness. I can't take it. Such a shame I cannot show this wonder in all its true splendor that has me dazzled and mesmerized. There are 425 photographs and so many great ones, and a good portion have these virgas sweeping across the foothills in the distance, I can feel them wash over Morrison and our old family home, right to left, then the near background the same sweep right to left, then midground sweep right to left, then closer, boom, it's there the rain is right in front of the camera then suddenly stops. All that after having already dumped on whole area thoroughly. Quite a good show. Each photograph is 9.3MB of eyepopping detail worthy artworks themselves. And now all 425 photographs are reduced to 12.6MB and that right there is properly criminal misrepresentation. Nonetheless, here it is.
2 comments:
At the end of the day, it's not about the wide-brush (& etc. of the range of art brushes), but rather the white-wash.
Fences, fences everywhere and nary a ...
I really like your sky time lapse posts!
Virga. We get this a lot in our area. High desert terrain.
Sunday, we were sitting on the deck which faces east. It has been hot and rather humid lately and to the east over the mountains the dark dark clouds have built up. So much so, that you couldn't see the tops of the mountains. The sky was black as high as you could see. It was hot on the deck, even in the shade. Probably still close to 90 at 5pm.
So we sit sipping our cocktails, getting ready to BBQ the steaks and watch the dark clouds. Expecting a lightening show to happen soon. We get this a lot and it can be quite spectacular. Down below the harrow bed operators are frantically picking up the bailed hay so it won't be ruined by the coming rain. There is a lot of hay down. We hope it doesn't pour onto it and ruin the crops.
The black clouds and the dark are gradually moving west, towards us, and the breeze is picking up. The air is beginning to cool a bit. Uh oh. Suddenly, way off in the east we see dust and dirt swirling in the air. The dusty dry roads out in the fields. The harrow bed guys are beating their way home out of the fields. Trying to get to the barn to shelter the hay. Getting darker, closer and it doesn't look like a BBQ on the deck is going to happen.
Woosh. The wind is incredible. I have to move the deck furniture from the deck and pin it down behind the west side of the pump house. One chair and cushion goes flying off the deck and up against the roses. The wind coming from the east is sliding everything around. Limbs from the pruning pile that I haven't picked up yet are flying through the air. Ouch!. We turn over the brass fire pit to keep it from becoming a flying saucer. The baby plums on the wild plum tree are pelting us like crazy. The wind tearing them from the tree. Ah well, we had too many on the tree anyway.
No rain! Just wind. It passes over us and shortly off in the distance we hear the constant rumbling of thunder which goes on dramatically for at least an hour. Counting the seconds between the flashes. Everything is calm here, but we know that to the West, up in those mountains, it is really taking a beating.
Nature is just awesome! Powerful and beautiful.
(We had left over chile rellenos casserole, salad with fruit for dessert. The steaks can wait until the next day.)
Post a Comment