A vocabulary of landscape — a landscape of words
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fallstreak hole
A circular or elliptical gap in a cloud layer where supercooled water droplets have frozen into ice crystals and fallen out, leaving a hole fringed with wispy cirrus. Also known as a hole-punch cloud or cavum, sometimes formed when aircraft passing through altocumulus or cirrocumulus trigger localized freezing.
Etymology
From English “fall” (descent) + “streak” (a trailing line or band) — “fallstreak” is the meteorological term for a shaft of precipitation visible falling from a cloud but evaporating before reaching the ground, related to virga. “Hole” added for the visible gap this leaves in the cloud layer. Compound term, 20th-century meteorological coinage; exact first use unverified.