ROANOKE, Va. – The past two mornings, you might’ve looked up at the sky and thought we were being invaded by a new species of flying jellyfish.
While that sounds like some sort of nautical horror movie, that wasn’t actually what was going on (and we think you knew that anyways).
Doug Butts, the Meteorologist In Charge at the National Weather Service in Blacksburg, says these are likely cirrus floccus.
According to the International Cloud Atlas, these are “cirrus in the form of more or less isolated, small, rounded tufts, often with trails. The apparent width of the tufts may be smaller or greater than 1° when observed at an angle of more than 30° above the horizon.”
Precipitation (likely snow) was trying to fall, but it was falling into a layer of dry air well before ever getting close to ground level.
What you see is almost a trail or tail of evaporation that we call ‘virga.’
You can see why that might happen when looking at Tuesday morning’s weather balloon launched from the National Weather Service in Blacksburg.
When the red line (temperature) and the green line (dew point) are close, the air is saturated. When they’re separated from one another, the air is dry.
If you caught a picture of this phenomenon, you can submit it through Pin It for a chance to be featured on air or online!