How old are you? Contrails have been coming from jets for a very long time. They were only at very high altitudes and disappeared after about 20 seconds. But they changed dramatically in the mid to late nineties. Water vapor doesn't spread out like flour thrown on a table. It doesn't precipitate from the edges of a thin white cloud. Aerosols do that. If water vapor acted like chemtrails our breath would leave a trail of little white clouds behind us as we walk.
Big mystery: what changed in the mid-to-late 90s? The airliners were flying at significantly higher altitudes due to advanced engines and aerodynamics. Though the absolute humidity was lower (fewer kilograms/meter^3 of water vapor), the relative humidity was higher (carrying capacity of the air was near saturation), so the contrails would persist longer.
But long-lasting contrails stretching across the sky were commonplace in the 1950s where B-52s were operating at 50,000 feet altitude. I saw them as a pre-school child.
There has never been consistency with regard to contrails. The same plane at the same altitude will leave a contrail one day and not the next. Wind speed and humidity determine whether a contrail is visible from the ground and how long it persists.
How old are you? Contrails have been coming from jets for a very long time. They were only at very high altitudes and disappeared after about 20 seconds. But they changed dramatically in the mid to late nineties. Water vapor doesn't spread out like flour thrown on a table. It doesn't precipitate from the edges of a thin white cloud. Aerosols do that. If water vapor acted like chemtrails our breath would leave a trail of little white clouds behind us as we walk.
Imagine on a cold day in which you can see your breath and then it lingering for 6 hours.
Kind of like fog.
Big mystery: what changed in the mid-to-late 90s? The airliners were flying at significantly higher altitudes due to advanced engines and aerodynamics. Though the absolute humidity was lower (fewer kilograms/meter^3 of water vapor), the relative humidity was higher (carrying capacity of the air was near saturation), so the contrails would persist longer.
But long-lasting contrails stretching across the sky were commonplace in the 1950s where B-52s were operating at 50,000 feet altitude. I saw them as a pre-school child.
There has never been consistency with regard to contrails. The same plane at the same altitude will leave a contrail one day and not the next. Wind speed and humidity determine whether a contrail is visible from the ground and how long it persists.