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Thursday, April 16, 2009 - Elephant Butte Lake State Park, Elephant Butte NM

Sunset, South Monticello Area, Elephant Butte Lake State Park, Elephant Butte NM, April 15, 2009
Sunset, South Monticello Area, Elephant Butte Lake State Park, Elephant Butte NM, April 15, 2009

My new Panasonic FZ28 camera's first sunset was a beaut too

I played with my new camera off and on all day yesterday trying to find my way through its extensive settings with the help of a pretty useless and confusing operators manual. At least the menu system on this camera is a little more intuitive than the one in my old Canon - maybe I stand a fighting chance of getting control over this one. Then I topped the day off with a bunch of sunset pictures.

Is that a virga I see below that cloud?

Maybe that accounts for some of the gusty winds we had here most of the day yesterday. Wikipedia describes a virga as:

In meteorology, virga is an observable streak or shaft of precipitation that falls from a cloud but evaporates before reaching the ground. At high altitudes the precipitation falls mainly as ice crystals before melting and finally evaporating; this is usually due to compressional heating, because the air pressure increases closer to the ground. It is very common in the desert and in temperate climates. It is also common in the Southern United States during summer.

Virga can cause very interesting 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.

Night camp

Site 32, South Monticello Point - Elephant Butte Lake State Park, Elephant Butte NM

Now, Dazzled

I've gone through life believing in the strength and competence of others; never in my own. Now, dazzled, I discover that my capacities are real. It's like finding a fortune in the lining of an old coat.

Joan Mills

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