rain, and not just regular rain

Colorado rain. I'm glad my camera caught this because it does show what I love. I'm hoping for startling color and not getting that. Instead, it shows a weather phenomena that arrested my attention the moment I saw it and has ever since. It's when the cloud in the distance can be seen releasing its water directly under itself but not in the area around it. I've only seen this in western sky. I've only seen it since moving here. The cloud type is called "virga" [google images] and that is very close to a Spanish swear.

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.