CLOUDS

Clouds are named based on their shape and their height in the sky. Some clouds are near the ground. Others are
almost as high as jet planes fly. Some are puffy like cotton. Others are grey and uniform. There are three main
types of clouds: low, middle/medium, and high.
Low clouds (CL)
The base is usually below 6,500 ft. These include cumulus, stratus, cumulonimbus, and stratocumulus.
Cumulus
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These are made of dense mounds or heaps with dark bases and white rounded upper regions. They are detached
and resemble a cauliflower. The sunlit parts of these clouds are mostly brilliant white while their bases are
relatively dark and horizontal.

Over land, cumulus develops on days of clear skies, and is due to diurnal convection; it appears in the morning,
grows, and then more or less dissolves again toward evening. Along coastlines, cumulus may form over land
during daylight hours as a sea breeze brings in moist air, which is then warmed by the surface. This effect
reverses overnight as the sea becomes warmer than the land and cumulus form over the sea.

Stratus

Stratus clouds are low-level layers with a fairly uniform grey or white colour. Often the scene of dull, overcast
days, they can persist for long periods of time. They are the lowest lying cloud type and sometimes appear at the
surface in the form of mist or fog.

Stratus clouds form in calm, stable conditions when gentle breezes raise cool, moist air over colder land or
ocean surfaces. These clouds can exist in a variety of thicknesses and are sometimes opaque enough to darken
days allowing for little light to pass through.

Stratus are usually accompanied by little to no rainfall, however if they are thick enough they can produce light
drizzle. This drizzle can also fall in the form of light snow if cold enough.

Cumulonimbus

This is the king of clouds. It is the thunderstorm cloud. This is a heavy and dense cloud in the form of a
mountain or huge tower. The upper portion is usually smoothed, fibrous or striated and nearly always flattened
in the shape of an anvil or vast plume. Under the base of this cloud which is often very dark, there are often low
ragged clouds that may or may not merge with the base. They produce precipitation, which sometimes is in the
form of virga. Cumulonimbus clouds also produce hail and tornadoes.

Cumulonimbus clouds are menacing looking multi-level clouds, extending high into the sky in towers or
plumes. Cumulonimbus is the only cloud type that can produce hail, thunder and lighting. The base of the cloud
is often flat with a very dark wall like feature hanging underneath, and may only lie a few hundred feet above
the Earth's surface.
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Cumulonimbus clouds are born through convection, often growing from small cumulus clouds over a hot
surface. They get taller and taller until they represent huge powerhouses, storing the same amount of energy as
10 Hiroshima-sized atom bombs. They can also form along cold fronts as a result of forced convection, where
milder air is forced to rise over the incoming cold air.

Cumulonimbus clouds are associated with extreme weather such as heavy torrential downpours, hail storms,
lightning and even tornados. If there is thunder, lightning or hail, the cloud is a cumulonimbus, rather than
nimbostratus.

Stratocumulus

Stratocumulus cloud consists of large, rounded masses of stratus that form groups, lines or waves.
Stratocumulus clouds are low-level clumps or patches of cloud varying in colour from bright white to dark grey.
They are the most common clouds on earth recognised by their well defined bases with some parts often darker
than others. They usually have gaps between them, but they can also be joined together.

Stratocumulus clouds usually form from a layer of stratus cloud breaking up. They are indicators of a change in
the weather and are usually present near a warm, cold or occluded front.

Stratocumulus clouds can be present in all types of weather conditions, from dry settled weather to more rainy
conditions, but they themselves are often not the culprit. Stratocumulus are often mistaken for rain clouds, when
in reality it is quite rare to get anything more than the lightest drizzle from them, if anything at all.

Medium/ Middle clouds (CM)

The base is usually between 6,500 and 20,000 ft. These include: altocumulus, altostratus, and nimbostratus.

Altocumulus

Altocumulus clouds are generally associated with settled weather and will normally appear white or grey with
shading. Altocumulus clouds are small mid-level layers or patches of clouds, called cloudlets, which most
commonly exist in the shape of rounded clumps. There are many varieties of altocumulus however, meaning
they can appear in a range of shapes. Altocumulus are made up of a mix of ice and water, giving them a slightly
more ethereal/ delicate and light appearance than the big and fluffy lower level cumulus.

Altocumulus clouds can form in a number of ways, such as; through the breakup of altostratus, the lifting of
moist air pockets which are cooled by gentle turbulence and mountainous terrain producing atmospheric waves
from which clouds can form. The presence of shading can help tell the difference between altocumulus and
cirrocumulus. Cirrocumulus clouds are white and tiny, but altocumulus clouds can be white or grey with shaded
sides.

Precipitation from these clouds is rare, but even if rain does fall it doesn't reach the ground. This precipitation
can be seen in the form of virga, where the rain is re-evaporated before reaching the surface.
Altostratus

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These are gray or bluish cloud sheets or layers of striated or fibrous clouds that totally or partially cover the sky.
They are thin. Altostratus evolves as a thin layer from a gradually thickening veil of cirrostratus that descends
from a higher level. They are composed of a mixture of water droplets and ice crystals.

Sometimes virga is seen hanging from Altostratus, and at times may even reach the ground causing very light
precipitation. Altostratus clouds often form ahead of a warm or occluded front. As the front passes, the
altostratus layer deepens and bulks out to become Nimbostratus which produces rain or snow. As a result,
sighting it can usually indicate a change in the weather is on the way.

Nimbostratus

Nimbostratus is a type of thick dark grey cloud that produces precipitation in the form of rain or snow. It is the
continuous rain cloud. It is thick enough throughout to blot out the sun. The cloud base lowers into the low level
of clouds as precipitation continues. Also, low, ragged clouds frequently occur beneath this cloud which
sometimes merges with its base. These clouds are often associated with frontal systems provided by mid-
latitude cyclones. Nimbostratus clouds form through the deepening and thickening of an altostratus cloud, often
along warm or occluded fronts.

High Clouds (CH)

Base usually 20, 000 ft or above. These include: cirrus, cirrocumulus, and cirrostratus.

Cirrus

A type of high, thin, wispy, white cloud composed of ice crystals. They are detached clouds. They may have a
fibrous (hair-like) and/or silky sheen appearance.

Before sunrise and after sunset, cirrus is often colored bright yellow or red. These clouds are lit up long before
other clouds and fade out much later. In the day time, they are whiter than any other cloud in the sky. While the
sun is setting or rising, they may take on the colours of the sunset.

They often form in advance of a warm front where the air masses meet at high levels, indicating a change in the
weather is on the way. Technically these clouds produce precipitation, however it never reaches the ground, but
instead 're-evaporates' creating virga.
Cirrostratus

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Cirrostratus are sheet-like, high-level clouds composed of ice crystals. They are whitish veil clouds with a
fibrous (hair-like) or smooth appearance. Though cirrostratus can cover the entire sky and be up to several
thousand feet thick, they are relatively transparent, as the sun or the moon can easily be seen through them.

A milky veil of fog (or thin Stratus) is distinguished from a veil of Cirrostratus of a similar appearance by the
halo phenomena which the sun or the moon nearly always produces in a layer of cirrostratus.

These high-level clouds typically form when a broad layer of air is lifted by large-scale convergence. They
thicken when a warm front approaches, signifying an increased production of ice crystals.

Cirrocumulus

These are thin, white patch, sheet, or layered of clouds without shading. Cirrocumulus clouds are made up of
lots of small white clouds called cloudlets, which are usually grouped together at high levels. Composed almost
entirely from ice crystals, the little cloudlets are regularly spaced, often arranged as ripples in the sky.

In general Cirrocumulus represents a degraded state of cirrus and cirrostratus both of which may change into it
and is an uncommon cloud. Cirrocumulus can sometimes appear to look like the scaly skin of a fish and are
sometimes referred to as a "mackerel sky".

They form when turbulent vertical currents meet a cirrus layer, creating the puffy cumulus shape. Cirrocumulus
clouds can also form through contrails, the vapour trails left by planes as they fly through a dry upper
troposphere. These streaks can spread out and become cirrus, cirrostratus and cirrocumulus.

Precipitation from cirrocumulus clouds never reaches the surface, meaning that these clouds are usually
associated with fair-weather. However their appearance can often prelude stormy weather.