Cirrostratus clouds are thin, white clouds that cover the whole sky like a veil. These clouds are most commonly seen in the winter, and can cause the appearance of a halo around the sun or the moon. Weather prediction: Rain or snow will arrive within 24 hours! Cirrocumulus clouds are thin, sometimes patchy, sheet-like clouds. Weather prediction: Fair, but cold. However, if you live in a tropical region, these clouds could be a sign of an approaching hurricane! Altocumulus clouds have several patchy white or gray layers, and seem to be made up of many small rows of fluffy ripples.
They are lower than cirrus clouds, but still quite high. Weather prediction: Fair. Altostratus clouds are gray or blue-gray mid-level clouds composed of ice crystals and water droplets. The clouds usually cover the entire sky. Weather prediction: Be prepared for continuous rain or snow! Nimbostratus clouds are dark, gray clouds that seem to fade into falling rain or snow. They are so thick that they often blot out the sunlight. A thin high level layer cloud, which often produce halos and through which the outline of the sun is generally visible.
These clouds are often the first visible indication of an approaching weather front, and may progressively thicken to altostratus and then nimbostratus with lowering of cloud base as the front approaches. Typically found in a similar altitude range to cirrus, these clouds do not produce precipitation and are usually more broken in appearance than cirrus, with the position of the sun or moon being visible.
Formed as air is forced to rise over elevated terrain, cloud base is dependant on prevailing conditions, but is similar in range to that of other low level clouds. Orographic cloud is often in contact with the ground at the hill top. These clouds often do not produce precipitation, but larger systems may produce drizzle. Heavier rain is generally due to thicker cloud above. Orographic cloud may be liquid or ice depending on prevailing conditions and terrain altitude.
Very thin cloud composed of water ice. These clouds are the highest clouds in the atmosphere, located in the mesosphere at an altitude of approximately ,ft. They are only visible when illuminated by light from below after the sun has gone below the horizon.
Thin cloud composed of ice particles located in the stratosphere in polar regions. This cloud may be at similar altitudes to cirrus cloud due to the lower height of the tropopause at the poles. As is indicated in the above table different types of cloud are formed in different atmospheric conditions — temperature — humidity — dynamics — stability.
From a microphysical point of view, clouds may be liquid, mixed phase, or ice and different microphysical processes are involved in each case.
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The table below provides information about cloud groups and any cloud types associated with them. Click on the cloud images in the table to learn more about each cloud type. Noctilucent clouds are the highest clouds in the sky, however they are not associated with weather like the rest of the clouds in this table. Cloud heights are different at the tropics and in the polar regions.
The air expands and cools, and clouds form as the temperature drops below the dew point. In other words, cold air cannot hold as much water vapor as warm air.
When these droplets come together , they form a cloud. Clouds have no problem existing in the cold of winter, because they can just exist as ice crystals. Water droplets in the air create rainbows, while ice crystals create sundogs, halos, and arcs. Thirdly, water can exist as a liquid in winter, even below its freezing point, if there are no nucleation centers. But it is very common for a cloud to FORM on the ground, and it is called fog. When it comes to warming, clouds acts in three ways.
They act like silvery shields reflecting away incoming sunlight; they act like insulators trapping heat on the planet recall how much cooler it gets on a cloudless night ; and they act like radiators sending heat out into space. Stratus the flat, kind of rainy fall clouds you see a lot , are usually between feet and a mile up. The Cirrus clouds , WAY up in the really cold areas of the atmosphere, usually sit around miles up , but can commonly as high as miles up as well.
These are the highest clouds we usually see. Clouds can form at many different altitudes. They can be as high as 12 miles above sea level or as low as the ground.
Fog is a kind of cloud that touches the ground. Fog forms when the air near the ground cools enough to turn its water vapor into liquid water or ice. The air around the clouds also weighs millions of pounds, but it floats because it's being held up by the air underneath it.
The clouds are held up for the same reason.
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