› added 1 year ago

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TIL that virga clouds produce precipitation that evaporates before reaching the ground. These streaky clouds are often seen trailing below larger cloud formations, giving the appearance of wispy tails. Virga can occur with both rain and snow, they often create dramatic, beautiful visual effects.

Read more metoffice.gov.uk

via reddit.com

d8nn9 TIL: In parts of the Caucasus Mountains highlands, some 1,000-year-old stone tower-fort homes built by the isolated Svan warriors are still being lived in. "The turbulent history of the region ensured that these fortifications remained in use long after similar defenses become redundant elsewhere."
0wpMA TIL NASA took Nefertiti the jumping Porscha spider to the ISS to see if she could learn to hunt in zero gravity. She did, and when she returned to earth 110 days later, she successfully retrained her jumps again for 1 g.
d8Paj TIL that inter-service rivalry as well as tactical differences between the Imperial Japanese Army and the Imperial Japanese Navy hampered the already deteriorating war effort during WW2. The rivalry was so bad that the Army has their own ships and the Navy has their own infantry groups.
7BRb TIL while working as a radio operator, Johnny Cash was the first American to know of the death of Joseph Stalin.
loA5G TIL It's believed that the plane crash that killed John Denver on Oct 12 1997 was due in part to him running out of fuel during flight, being unable to see his fuel gauge, and a design flaw in accessing his reserve fuel tank switch.