Clouds by Wiki

Cloud
Visible mass of liquid droplets or frozen

crystals suspended in the atmosphere
Clouds in the sky

A cloud is water vapour in the atmosphere
(sky) that has condensed into very small
water droplets or ice crystals that appear
in visible shapes or formations above the
ground.
Water on the Earth evaporates (turns into

an invisible gas) and rises up into the sky.
Higher up where the air is colder, the water
condenses: it changes from a gas to drops
of water or crystals of ice. We see these
drops of water as clouds. The drops fall
back down to earth as rain, and then the
water evaporates again. This is called the
"water cycle".
The atmosphere always has some water
vapour. Clouds form when the atmosphere
can no longer hold all the invisible air
vapor.[1] Any more water vapor condenses
into very small water drops.[1]
Warm air holds more water vapor than

cool air.[1] So if warm air with lots of water
inside cools, it can form a cloud. These are
ways air can cool enough to form clouds:
when air close to the ground is heated

by the sun and rises to where the air is
colder.
along weather fronts warmer air is
cooled as it runs into colder air;
when air goes up the side of a mountain
it cools as it goes higher;
when warm air goes over something
colder such as cool water in a lake) or
ground that is cooled at night it cools.
Clouds are not heavy. The water in a cloud

can have a mass of several million tons.
Every cubic metre (m3) of the cloud has
only about 5 grams of water in it. Cloud
droplets are also about 1000 times heavier
than evaporated water, so they are much
heavier than air. They do not fall, but stay
in the air, because there is warm air all
round the heavier water droplets. When
water changes from gas to droplets, this
makes heat. Because the droplets are very
small, they "stick" to the warm air.
Sometimes, clouds appear to be brilliant

colors at sunrise or sunset. This is due to
dust particles in the air.
Cloud classification
Clouds are classified according to how
they look and how high the base of the
cloud is in the sky.[1] This system was
suggested in 1803. There are different
sorts of clouds because the air where they
form can be still or moving forward or up
and down at different speeds. Very thick
clouds with large enough water droplets
can make rain or snow, and the biggest
clouds can make thunder and lightning.
There are five basic families of clouds

based on how they look:[2]
Cirrus clouds are high and thin. The air

is very cold at high levels, so these
clouds are made of ice crystals instead
of water droplets. Cirrus clouds are
sometimes called mares' tails because
they look like the tails of a horse.
Stratus clouds are like flat sheets. They
may be low-level clouds (stratus),
medium-level (altostratus), high-level
(cirrostratus), or thick multi-level clouds
that make rain or snow (nimbostratus).
Stratocumulus clouds are in the form of
rolls or ripples. They may be low-level
clouds (stratocumulus), medium-level
(altocumulus), or high-level
(cirrocumulus).
Cumulus clouds are puffly and small
when they first form. They may grow
into heap clouds that have moderate
vertical extent (nothing added to the
name), or become towering vertical
clouds (towering cumulus).
Cumulonimbus clouds are very large
cumulus-type clouds that usually
develop cirrus tops and sometimes
other features that give them their own
unique look.
The following is a summary of the main

cloud types arranged by how high they
form:
High-Level clouds
A sky of cirrus clouds (left) turning into cirrostratus

(center-right) with some cirrocumulus (upper right).
High clouds form from 10,000 to 25,000 ft
(3,000 to 8,000 m) in cold places, 16,500
to 40,000 ft (5,000 to 12,000 m) in mild
regions and 20,000 to 60,000 ft (6,000 to
18,000 m) in the very hot tropics.[3] They
are too high and thin to produce rain or
snow.
High-level clouds include:
Cirrus (Ci)
Cirrocumulus (Cc)
Cirrostratus (Cs)
Medium-level clouds
Middle clouds usually form at 6,500 ft
(2,000 m) in colder areas. However, they
may form as high as 25,000 ft (8,000 m) in
the tropics where it's very warm all year.[3]
Middle clouds are usually made of water
droplets but may also have some ice
crystals. They occasionally produce rain or
snow that usually evaporates before
reaching the ground.
Medium-level clouds include:
Altocumulus (Ac)
Altostratus (As)
Low-level clouds
Low-level clouds are usually seen from
near ground level[1] to as high as 6,500 ft
(2,000 m).[3] Low clouds are usually made
of water droplets and may occasionally
produce very light rain, drizzle, or snow.
Low-level clouds include:[4]
Stratocumulus (Sc)
Stratus (St)
When very low stratus cloud touches the

ground, it is called fog.
Moderate-vertical clouds
A cloudscape of moderate-vertical cumulus over
Swifts Creek, Victoria, Australia
These are clouds of medium thickness

that can form anywhere from near ground
level to as high as 10,000 ft (3,000 m).[3]
Medium-level cumulus does not have alto
added to its name.[1] The tops of these
clouds are usually not much higher than
20,000 ft (6,000 m). Vertical clouds often
create rain and snow. They are made
mostly of water droplets, but when they
push up through cold higher levels they
may also have ice crystals.
Moderate-vertical clouds include:
Cumulus (Cu)
Nimbostratus (Ns)
Towering-vertical clouds
These clouds are very tall with tops usually

higher than 20,000 ft (6,000 m). They can
create heavy rain and snow showers.
Cumulonimbus, the biggest clouds of all,
can also produce thunderstorms. These
clouds are mostly made of water droplets,
but the tops of very large cumulonimbus
clouds are often made mostly of ice
crystals.
Towering-vertical clouds include:
Towering cumulus (Tcu)

Cumulonimbus (Cb)
Gallery
Mountain peaks poking through ragged
stratus clouds in the Swiss Alps.
Cumulus cloud bow above the Pacific

Ocean with low stratocumulus in the
background.
As a sign
In the Bible, clouds are often a sign of
God's presence.
References
1. Oard, Michael (1997). The Weather Book.
P.O. Box 126, Green Forest, AR 72638:
Master Books. ISBN 0-89051-211-6.
2. E.C. Barrett and C.K. Grant (1976). "The
identification of cloud types in LANDSAT
MSS images" . NASA. Retrieved 22 August
2012.
3. "NWS JetStream MAX - The Structure of
the Ionosphere" . srh.weather.gov.
Retrieved 22 April 2010.
4. "Plymouth State Meteorology Program
Cloud Boutique" . vortex.plymouth.edu.
Retrieved 22 April 2010.
Other websites
Find more about
Cloud
at Wikipedia's sister projects
Definitions from Wiktionary

Media from Commons
News stories from Wikinews
Quotations from Wikiquote
Source texts from Wikisource
Textbooks from Wikibooks
Learning resources from Wikiversity
"BadMeteorology's explanation of why

clouds form" . ems.psu.edu. Retrieved
22 April 2010.
"Photographs and information about
clouds" . chitambo.com. Retrieved 22
April 2010.
"Cloud Fraction : Global Maps" .
earthobservatory.nasa.gov. Retrieved 22
April 2010.
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Cloud

Visible mass of liquid droplets or frozen

Clouds in the sky

Water on the Earth evaporates (turns into

Warm air holds more water vapor than

when air close to the ground is heated

Clouds are not heavy. The water in a cloud

Sometimes, clouds appear to be brilliant

There are ﬁve basic families of clouds

Cirrus clouds are high and thin. The air

The following is a summary of the main

A sky of cirrus clouds (left) turning into cirrostratus

High-level clouds include:

Medium-level clouds include:

Low-level clouds include:[4]

When very low stratus cloud touches the

These are clouds of medium thickness

Moderate-vertical clouds include:

These clouds are very tall with tops usually

Towering-vertical clouds include:

Towering cumulus (Tcu)

Cumulus cloud bow above the Paciﬁc

Deﬁnitions from Wiktionary

"BadMeteorology's explanation of why

Last edited 1 year ago by an anony…

Content is available under CC BY-SA 3.0 unless

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