photo #6392528

Timothy Erdman (Member 48,870) spotted this flock of Altocumulus clouds gliding over the Gobi Desert in Mongolia. Their tails are virga, showers that are dissipating away in the dry air below, providing an elegant but unavailing glimpse of rain. The Mongolian word gobi means ‘waterless place’. With an unobstructed view across the treeless plain, Timothy also spied a distant cloud herd of a different species. Packs of Cumulus clouds, of which these are examples, can theoretically make rain, but these lack the stature needed to do so. Instead, they’ll graze on the steppe and hope to chance upon some distant watering hole.