Where did the lift go?

[Vince inTX.]

I had a most baffling experience the other day that I was hoping someone could shed some light on. A friend and I were flying at the local fairgrounds and not getting much lift at all. Flights were lasting only 2-3 minutes and getting frustrating. So we decided to take a few minutes and watch. Up wind of us were many, small cumulous clouds headed our way coming in off of the Gulf of Mexico. HOORAY lift is on the way!!! Not so. As the clouds approached our location they began to dissipate. They would finally vanish almost directly above us. This was happening to all the clouds for about a mile on either side of our location. Beyond that however the clouds continued to grow and develop. It was as if the weather gods had designated this spot a “NO FLY ZONE”.

So what was happening here? Small localized high pressure, DRY LINE? Has anyone else seen something like this? BTW this is not an issue of elevation, from the coast of Galveston and inland for more than 40 miles, natural elevation increases less than 10-15 feet.

All thoughts, ideas and swags (scientific wild a$$ guesses) are welcome.

Thanks
Vince

[WGH]

You obviously did something to anger the Thermal Gods, next time you go out sacrifice a glider and the lift will return.

[BMatthews]

I think you're right about you sitting in the middle of some sort of microcell that did not support lift on that day. Nothing to do but wait it out or go elsewhere.

The opposite happened to me last year. Clouds were forming over the adjacent field at about 500 feet AGL and after forming up to a nice cotton ball they would break free and drift downwind while carrying me up nicely. I'd float along at the base of the cloud as it rose to about 1200 feet and then dissapated. This cycle took about 10 minutes at which point a new cloud was busy forming over the field again. So back I'd go for another ride. I did this for about 6 or 7 cycles and finally landed because it was just TOO easy. But I watched the thermal generator work for most of the rest of the afternoon before it warmed enough and the field conditions changed to kill whatever was creating the thermals.

[nuevo]

probably the thermal generator was quite a ways upwind of your field. By the time the clouds drifted over your field, the source of heat was gone and the clouds were dissipating.

On another note, the cloud base where I fly is often 2000' AGL, so I do not concern myself with individual clouds unless I am very high.