Talk:Virga

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[edit] Please help Chech Wikipedia!

Good evening (or whatever phase of day may be in your place), I'd like to beg of you for further explanation of following sentence. Please use easier words, if possible. My knowledges of English aren't so good.
Thank you very much
Milhaus, czech wikipedia User:147.251.242.166 ---

The red light can be caught by the streamers of falling precipitation, while aloft winds push the bottom ends of the virga so it falls at an angle, making the clouds appear to have commas attached.

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Hi Milhaus,

It was not my line, but:

The streamers of rain below the cloud at sunset are visible because of the setting sun. Air movements (wind currents) below the clouds push the streamers to one side in an arcuate pattern resembling a comma below the cloud. The streamers of precipitation evaporate some distance below the clouds, typically creating an irregular whispy lower edge to the streamers of precipitation, or virga.

Hope that helps - Vsmith 02:07, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

Above copied from my talk page for reference here. Vsmith 02:33, 14 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Acronym

I removed "It also is an acronym for "Variable Intensity Rain Gradient Aloft", meaning the rain gradient varies in intensity dependent upon altitude. As the precipitation evaporates as it falls, its intensity lessens, hence; virga." as I've never heard of that in meteorology and seriously doubt it's veracity. The name comes the derivation from Latin. Dan100 (Talk) 13:20, 25 January 2007 (UTC)

Since the last posting somebody undid that change again, putting the "acronym" explanation back in. I put it back to the Latin yesterday. Sorry for having made a change without checking here first, as I see the "Latin vs. acronym" thing has gone back & forth like a ping-pong ball. I do hope it will be agreeable to give the legitimate Latin etymology, and then as additional information refer to it as a backronym since it is, apparently, pretty popular and many people think it is really an acronym. Better to address that than leave it out, since it keeps coming back like a bad penny. brucemcdon – 02:49, 4 February 2008 (UTC)