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Virga
falling precipitation that evaporates before reaching the ground

This is a dissipating multicell anvil cloud, looking northeast, late in the afternoon near Fort Morgan, Colorado. Note the lack of precipitation beneath the dissipating storm cell, except for the white virga streak behind the tree line.


Photograph by Moller

The area close to this virga could be quite dangerous for low-level aircraft operations. Microbursts that occur with virga are aptly called dry microbursts, even though a spattering of raindrops may reach the surface.


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Credits and Acknowledgments for WW2010.
Department of Atmospheric Sciences (DAS) at
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.