Word: cumulus
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...sordid trail of mink coats and other gifts to Government officials. Casuistry reached a high point with the official whose conscience told him that it was proper to accept a ham under twelve pounds, but not a bigger one. Democratic Chairman William Boyle resigned his job under a cumulus cloud of influence peddling, and his successor was hardly in office before clouds gathered over him too. The public worked up quite a head of indignant steam over scandals in the Bureau of Internal Revenue, which was taking more of its money than ever before. This indignation fell like a load...
...typical summer weather last week as the South African gliding meet began on the broad plateau at Baragwanath. All morning thick cumulus clouds built up in the hot, dry air over the Rand. At noon, Swiss Engineer René Comte folded his wiry frame into the cramped, rubber-cushioned cockpit of his sleek Moswey (Buzzard) IV glider, fitted the bubble canopy in place and took off, towed by a sturdy little Tiger-Moth. With good luck he hoped to fly to Bloemfontein, 200 miles away...
Instead of "triggering a rainstorm," the objective is to turn the small water droplets . . . into fine snowflakes, so that the cloud will fuzz out and drift away instead of growing into a towering cumulus with an anvil top and lots of lightning...
Reluctant Clouds. In arid regions like New Mexico, Langmuir explained, big cumulus clouds often rise high in the air without dropping any rain. In such cases, the air does not contain enough natural nuclei (suitable dust particles) for moisture to condense upon. The warm air from over a sun-heated plain boils upward vigorously, but the moisture in it does not condense until the cold upper levels are reached. Then it condenses suddenly into very small ice particles that drift off at about 35,000 feet, leaving the ground dry, its inhabitants disappointed...