photo #4165763

Every April, the city of Tucson, Arizona, US hosts the International Mariachi Conference, an annual gathering of hundreds of mariachi bands and dance troupes. A few weeks before the conference, Adrienne Katz (Cloud Appreciation Society Member 59,544) spotted this Altocumulus sky limbering up over the city. The streaks descending from the cloud masses like dancers’ legs are known as virga. These are trails of ice crystals falling from the clouds that dissipated away, or sublimated, in the drier air below, long before reaching the ground. Like a swirling Mexican dance party in the sky, the clouds were clearly anticipating the mariachi musicians coming to town