Precipitation
Objects in Clouds
Falling Rain Droplet
Virga and Praecipitatio
Microburst
Rainshaft
Falling Cloud
Tropical Rain
Tropical Rainforest
Flood
Diamond Dust
Overview

 


Rainshaft



The series Rainshaft1-21.jpg shows a closely limited zone below a relatively small Cumulus congestus which produces strong precipitation. At some pictures one can see how the sea surface changes due to impinging precipitation. The extension of the series (or the large number of repeating pictures) indicates how long the cloud rained out of a single part. The event lasted all in all approximately for half an hour. During this time the cloud was nearly stationary. That means that it only moved slowly up and down in a region of around 4 km in front of the beach of Luqillo.

Since the cloud base was very closely above the sea surface and no outflow to the side could be noticed on the water surface, the event could be classified as a "micro-burst" even though there were strong down-winds inside the rain zone. Therefore the expression "rainshaft" seems to be better suited. The intense rainbows which could be observed at the same place one day later during a similar event are described in Rainbow II .

Rainshaft22.jpg and Rainshaft23.jpg show also locally very limited, but strong rainfalls occurring over an area

with a diameter of around 100 m. They were caused by a full-grown Cumulonimbus cloud.



Rainshaft1-21.jpg: S. Borrmann, Luquillo, Puerto Rico, RICO-PRACS Field Campaign, 15 December 2004, 7:26 a.m. to 7:43 a.m.

Rainshaft22+23.jpg: S. Borrmann, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, SCOUT-O3 Field Campaign, 25 November 2005, 0:29 p.m. local time