CLOUDS & PRECIPITATION

Clouds
Clouds may appear white to gray to deep
gray depending on how thick they are.
The thicker a cloud is the darker it would
appear.
Clouds are formed by the lifting of damp
air, which cools by expansion as it
encounters the lower pressures existing at
higher levels.
Cloud Form
Cloud names may consist of two parts: altitude
and form.
The first part of the name refers to the clouds
altitude: These are strato (low), alto (middle)
and cirro (High).
The second part of the name concerns the
morphology (form): These are cirrus, stratus,
and cumulus.
Cloud Types
The basic types of clouds are categorized by
both their appearance and their height.
These are high, middle, low, and vertical
clouds.
 High Clouds
Forms above 6000 m.
Because the air is cold and dry, high clouds are
composed almost exclusively of ice crystals.
These clouds also tend to be very thin.
Cloud Types Cont.
Middle Clouds
Middle clouds have bases between 2000 and 6000 m.
Are composed of water droplets and ice crystals.
Low Clouds
Low clouds, with their bases lying below 2000 m.
They are almost always composed of water droplets.  
Vertical Clouds
They have vertical development.
Most are often associated with thunderstorms.
Cloud Development
Clouds usually develop from cooling
process that result when a parcel of air on
earth surface is lifted into the atmosphere.
The rising parcel of air will expand as it
encounters decreasing atmospheric pressure
with increasing altitude.
This expansion allows the air molecules to
spread out, which causes the parcel’s
temperature to decrease.
Adiabatic Processes
Adiabatic process describes how air parcels
behave with their upward and downward
movements in the atmosphere, without
exchange of heat energy with the
surroundings.
Adiabatic temperature changes are the
result of changes in volume and do not
involve the addition or subtraction of heat
from external sources.
Adiabatic Processes Cont.
Lapse rate is the change of an atmosphere
variable, usually temperature, with height.
Dry Adiabatic Lapse Rate (DALR) is the
rate at which a parcel of unsaturated air
cools as it rises. The rate is about 10°C/km.
It also applies to air that is subsiding, if
there is no moisture present, and no
evaporation is taking place.
Adiabatic Processes Cont.
Saturated Adiabatic Lapse Rate (SALR)
depicts the change in temperature of
saturated air as it rises and undergoes
cooling due to adiabatic expansion.
It averages about 6°C/km.
Adiabatic Processes Cont.
Environmental Lapse Rate: the normal
environmental lapse rate applies to still air.
Temperature decreases with increasing
altitude at a rate of about 6.5 oC per km.
Lifting condensation level (LCL): the
altitude at which rising air cools to reach 100
percent relative humidity at the dew point
temperature, and condensation begins.
The Buoyancy of Air
Buoyancy is the tendency of an object to
rise in a fluid.
Unstable air is buoyant and will rise
without external force or will continue to
rise after force is removed.
Instability is created when rising air is
warmer than surrounding air.
Buoyancy Cont
Stable air resists vertical movement and will
not move unless force is applied.
It is nonbuoyant.
Stability is created when the rising air is
cooler than surrounding air.
Determining Air Stability
 May be determined by looking at cloud patterns.
Unstable air is associated with distinct updrafts,
which are likely to produce vertical clouds.
Cumulous clouds suggest instability.
Towering cumulonimbus clouds suggest
pronounced instability.
Horizontally developed clouds is an indication of
stable air forced to rise.
Cloudless sky indicative of stable, immobile air.
PRECIPITATION
Introduction
Precipitation occurs when droplets grow
and develop masses too great to be held
aloft.
It is measured in millimeters (mm).
Isohyet: is a line joining points of equal
quantities of precipitation.
The form that precipitation takes depends
largely on the method of formation and the
temperature during formation.
Major Forms of Precipitation
Rain: consist of drops of liquid water.
Snow: solid precipitation in the form of ice
crystals, small pellets, or flakes.
Sleet: small raindrops that freeze during
decent, reaching ground as small pellets of
ice.
Glaze: rain that turns to ice the instant it
collides with a solid object.
Forms Cont.
Hail: rounded or irregular pellets of ice
produced when small ice particles grow by
collecting moisture from supercooled cloud
droplets.
Drizzle is a light liquid precipitation
consisting of liquid water drops smaller than
those of rain – generally smaller than
0.5 mm in diameter.
Factors Necessary for Precipitation
Three factors are necessary for the
formation of precipitation.
These include:
Presence of moist air from earth surface
Presence of condensation nuclei
Uplift mechanism
Moist Air
Storage areas for water on earth include the
oceans, streams, lakes, glaciers, plants and
animals, soils, etc.
Water evaporates from these storage areas
to become water vapor in the atmosphere.
Condensation Nuclei
These are tiny atmospheric particles that
serve as collection centers for water
molecules.
There are two broad categories of
condensation nuclei:
Hygroscopic nuclei are water seeking
nuclei
Hydrophobic nuclei are water repelling
Uplift Mechanism
There are four principal types of lifting:
convective, orographic, frontal, and
convergent lifting.
The various types operate in conjunction.
Convective Lifting: occurs when unequal
heating of different air surface areas warms
one parcel of air and not the air around it.
Uplift Mechanism Cont
Frontal Lifting: occurs when unlike air
masses meet, creating a zone of
discontinuity (front) that forces the warmer
air to rise over the cooler air.
Orographic: occurs when topographic
barriers force air to ascend upslope.
Convergent Lifting: occurs when air parcels
converge and the crowding forces uplift,
which enhances instability.
Spatial Distribution of Rainfall
Different areas of the Earth’s surface receive
different amounts of precipitation.
Factors that affect the spatial distribution of
rainfall include:
Altitude
Continentality/Oceanity
Latitude
Air Masses
Factors
Altitude:
It rains more in high areas than in low areas.
Continentality/Oceanity:
The oceans are a source of humidity.
It rains more on the coast than inland.
Coastal regions usually receive more rainfall
than interior regions because they are closer
to moisture sources.
Factors Cont.
Latitude:
It rains more in the areas near the equator
than in the temperate zones and polar regions.
Temperature is higher near the Equator so
there is more evaporation.
Air Masses:
Nature of air mass and the degree to which that
air is uplifted determine the amount of
precipitation in an area.
Global Distribution of Precipitation