Video time-lapse: “Rain curtains and convective clouds from the Atmospheric Observatory Izaña”

On October 22nd, 2014, the Izaña Atmospheric Observatory’s webcam oriented to the Orotava Valley (west and north) captured spectacular rain curtains falling from clouds at dawn and early morning. As the day progressed these first clouds disappeared, leaving clear skies. However, at noon, convective clouds grew on Teide peak.

The following “time-lapse” video, compiled from images captured by the webcam, displayed first rain curtains and later the development of diurnal evolution cloudiness. Explanatory captions have been included.

{flv width=”850″ height=”600″ flashver=”0.0.0″ alt=”Error”}Praecipitatio{/flv}

Note that the rain curtains observed in the first part of the video reaches the ground. This is called “praecipitatio”, being a distinctive feature of the clouds, since it starts from them. When this precipitation evaporates and run off before reaching the ground, it is called “Virga”.

You also can find this video by clicking HERE