Crossword clues for virga
Wiktionary
n. 1 (context music uncountable English) A type of note used in plainsong notation, having a tail. 2 (context meteorology countable English) A streak of rain or snow that is dissipated in falling and does not reach the ground, commonly appearing descending from a cloud layer.
WordNet
n. light wispy precipitation that evaporates before it reaches the ground (especially when the lower air is low in humidity)
Wikipedia
__NOTOC__ In meteorology, virga is an observable streak or shaft of precipitation that falls from a cloud but evaporates or sublimes before reaching the ground. A shaft of precipitation which does not evaporate before reaching the ground is a precipitation shaft. At high altitudes the precipitation falls mainly as ice crystals before melting and finally evaporating; this is often due to compressional heating, because the air pressure increases closer to the ground. It is very common in the desert and in temperate climates. In North America, it is commonly seen in the Western United States and the Canadian Prairies. It is also very common in the Middle East, Australia and North Africa.
Virga can cause varying weather effects, because as rain is changed from liquid to vapor form, it removes heat from the air due to the high heat of vaporization of water. In some instances, these pockets of colder air can descend rapidly, creating a dry microburst which can be extremely hazardous to aviation. Conversely, precipitation evaporating at high altitude can compressionally heat as it falls, and result in a gusty downburst which may substantially and rapidly warm the surface temperature. This fairly rare phenomenon, a heat burst, also tends to be of exceedingly dry air.
Virga also has a role in seeding storm cells whereby small particles from one cloud are blown into neighboring supersaturated air and act as nucleation particles for the next thunderhead cloud to begin forming.
The word is derived from Latin virga meaning "twig" or "branch".
Virga is a genus of skippers in the family Hesperiidae.
A virga is an observable streak or shaft of precipitation.
Virga may also refer to:
- Virga (butterfly), genus of butterflies
- Virga parish, parish in Priekule municipality, Latvia
- The Virga series, a science fiction series by Karl Schroeder
- Virga Jesse Basilica, church in Belgium
- An obsolete unit of length, proposed by Gabriel Mouton.
Usage examples of "virga".
It turns out that Mahallan is not from Virga, but is a visitor from the strange universe outside the giant balloon.
They recover the map without incident, and the expeditionary force embarks for the inner regions of Virga, an area known as the principalities of Candesce.
But her own conviction seems weak, and at last she admits that she herself is in Virga against her will.
Artificial Nature, and in penance she has been sent into Virga on a mission whose details she is afraid--or ashamed--to reveal.
Those designs are still available to anyone willing to leave Virga to find them.
This night, technologies long banned in Virga would become possible here again.
Chaison had caught a rope and found himself dangling over the infinite airs of Virga, watching while the aft half of the dreadnaught fell away and wrenched itself to pieces with explosion after explosion.
In some ways it looked right: the endless vistas of Virga were blocked by some sort of structure.
The energy needed to keep it turning in the unstable airs of Virga would beggar any normal nation.
Lacking any gravity save that made by its own inner air, Virga was a weightless environment whose extent could easily seem infinite to those who lived within it.
The curve ended in a broad gallery above and beyond which the winds of Virga shuddered.
With that they could have ruled all of Virga from the sun of suns itself!
The principalities are mobilizing, and agents of the Virga Home Guard have been seen nosing around, even here.
As a foreigner from beyond Virga, hence something of a curiosity, she is allowed to wander as she pleases.
She committed crimes against the systems of Artificial Nature, and in penance she has been sent into Virga on a mission whose details she is afraid--or ashamed--to reveal.