This image was taken on the walkway on the East side of the Aerospace building, facing ENE. The photo was captured at 5:34PM on Oct. 1, 2025. It had rained off and on for most of the day, and this was at the tail end of the day’s storms.
The Skew-T diagram is from a sounding from GJT (Grand Junction, CO) at 0Z, 30 minutes after the photo was taken. Unfortunately, the sounding from KLBF (North Platte, NE) which would have been more representative to the conditions on this side of the Rockies, is not available. The Skew-T diagram indicates a stable atmosphere, with a CAPE value of 0.00 J/kg, which indicates there is no energy available for storm production.
The cloud captured in the image appears most similar to a cumulus cloud, with a virga feature, in which there is a precipitation shaft that evaporates before reaching the ground.
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Hi Ellington, this is a really cool cloud. I think the depth of the virga is really interesting, as well as how this relatively unstable cloud is the only one in the nearby atmosphere. Really interesting capture & I like the silhouette a lot too! Excited to see what you find out about this cloud in your report.
This is might be one of the clearest images of virga I’ve ever seen! So cool!
Such a great shot of an interesting phenomenon! The contrast on this is great and really shows the three-dimensional form.
Capturing the virga in this image is very unique! I think you could benefit from cropping your image on the left hand side where no clouds are visible to really focus on the phenomena at hand!