Weather prediction: Gloomy with continuous rain or snow. Cumulus clouds look like fluffy, white cotton balls in the sky. They are beautiful in sunsets, and their varying sizes and shapes can make them fun to observe! Stratus cloud often look like thin, white sheets covering the whole sky.
Since they are so thin, they seldom produce much rain or snow. Sometimes, in the mountains or hills, these clouds appear to be fog. Weather prediction: Fair, but gloomy. Cumulonimbus clouds grow on hot days when warm, wet air rises very high into the sky. From far away, they look like huge mountains or towers. Weather prediction: Look out for rain, hail, and tornadoes! Stratocumulus clouds are patchy gray or white clouds that often have a dark honeycomb-like appearance.
Weather prediction: Fair weather for now, but a storm might be on its way. Contrails are made by high-flying jet airplanes. They are still clouds, though, because they are made of water droplets condensed from the water vapor in the exhaust of the jet engines. Weather prediction: Contrails can provide information about the layers of moisture in the sky.
Mammatus clouds are actually altocumulus, cirrus, cumulonimbus, or other types of clouds that have these pouch-like shapes hanging out of the bottom. The pouches are created when cold air within the cloud sinks down toward the Earth. Weather prediction: Severe weather might be on its way! Orographic clouds get their shape from mountains or hills that force the air to move over or around them.
Cirrus : Thin, feather-like, wispy clouds which are strands of ice crystals. Weather prediction : A change is on its way! Image: Cirrus Clouds. In the tropics, hurricane potential! Warm fronts can bring veering winds and precipitation. So, a sailor might take in his sails.
Image: Cirrocumulus Clouds. Cirrostratus: Thin white clouds that resemble veils that tend to cover the whole sky. They are more commoin winter. Weather prediction : Rain or snow will arrive within 24 hours!
Image: Cirrostratus Clouds. Altocumulus: Gray or white layers or patches of solid clouds with rounded shapes, and they often appear as fluffy ripples. Weather prediction: Fair and pleasant! Image: Altocumulus clouds. Altostratus: Grayish or bluish layer of clouds that can obscure the Sun, usually covering the entire sky. Weather prediction : Be prepared for continuous rain or snow! Image: Altostratus clouds. Nimbostratus: Dark, gray, shapeless cloud layers containing rain, snow, or ice pellets.
They are often thick enough to block out the Sun. Weather prediction : Gloomy with persistant rain or snow. Image: Nimbostratus clouds. Stratus: Thin, gray-white, sheetlike clouds with low bases covering the whole sky. Weather prediction : Fair, but gloomy. They may bring drizzle or snow but not much precipitation since they are so thin. Image: Stratus clouds. Such a cloud would be known as fog, ice fog, or mist. The types of clouds can be divided into three levels, each in turn with its own main groups of clouds.
All in all, there are ten fundamental types of clouds. Cirrus is one of the most common types of clouds that can be seen at any time of the year. This type of cloud is always made of ice crystals whose degree of separation determines how transparent the cirrus is. Cirrus clouds lit up long before other clouds and fade out much later. Cirrocumulus clouds are among the most gorgeous out there. These usually form at about 5 km above the surface with small white fluff patterns that spread out for miles and miles over the sky.
Join the ZME newsletter for amazing science news, features, and exclusive scoops. More than 40, subscribers can't be wrong. Cirrocumulus clouds exhibit features from both cumulus and cirrus clouds but should not be confused with altocumulus clouds. While the two can look similar, cirrocumulus does not have shading and some parts of altocumulus are darker than the rest. Cirrocumulus cloud comes after cirrus cloud during warm frontal system. Cirrostratus clouds have a sheet-like appearance that can look like a curly blanket covering the sky.
Their color varies from light gray to white and the fibrous bands can vary widely in thickness. Purely white cirrostratus clouds signify these have stored misture, indicating the presence of a warm frontal system.
Some of the best cloud pictures involve cirrostratus clouds because the ice crystals beautifully refract light from the sun or moon producing a dazzling halo effect. Cirrostratus clouds can turn into altostratus clouds if these descend to a lower altitude. As a nice piece of trivia, cirrostratus clouds almost always move in a westerly direction.
The sight of them usually means rainfall is imminent in the next 24 hours. They usually appear between lower stratus clouds and higher cirrus clouds, and normally precede altostratus when a warm frontal system is advancing.
When altocumulus appears with another cloud type at the same time, storm normally follows. Altocumulus clouds are common in most parts of the world. Altocumulus clouds are quite common in most parts of the globe. They usually grow by convection, in most cases after damp air rises to mix with descending dry air.
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