Stratocumulus Clouds Stratocumulus clouds are low, puffy and gray. Most form in rows with blue sky visible in between them. Rain rarely occurs with stratocumulus clouds, however, they can turn into nimbostratus clouds. Nimbostratus Clouds Nimbostratus clouds form a dark gray, wet looking cloudy layer associated with continuously falling rain or snow. They often produce precipitation that is usually light to moderate.
Cumulus Clouds Cumulus Clouds Cumulus clouds are white, puffy clouds that look like pieces of floating cotton. The base of each cloud is flat and the top of each cloud has rounded towers. When the top of the cumulus clouds resemble the head of a cauliflower, it is called cumulus congestus or towering cumulus. These clouds grow upward and they can develop into giant cumulonimbus clouds, which are thunderstorm clouds.
Cumulonimbus Clouds Cumulonimbus clouds are thunderstorm clouds. High winds can flatten the top of the cloud into an anvil-like shape. Cumulonimbus clouds are associated with heavy rain, snow, hail, lightning and even tornadoes.
The anvil usually points in the direction the storm is moving. Anvil Clouds Anvil clouds, which are mostly composed of ice particles, form in the upper parts of thunderstorms. They get their anvil shape from the fact that the rising air in thunderstorms expands and spreads out as the air bumps up against the bottom of the stratosphere.
This is because the air in the stratosphere is warmer than the rising air in the anvil, and so prevents the relatively cooler anvil air from rising any farther.
Special Clouds Mammatus Clouds Mammatus clouds are low hanging bulges that droop from cumulonimbus clouds. Mammatus clouds are usually associated with severe weather. Lenticular Clouds Lenticular clouds are caused by a wave wind pattern created by the mountains. They look like discs or flying saucers that form near mountains. Fog Fog is a cloud on the ground. It is composed of billions of tiny water droplets floating in the air. Contrails Contrails are condensation trails left behind jet aircrafts.
Contrails form when hot humid air from jet exhaust mixes with environmental air of low vapor pressure and low temperature. The mixing is a result of turbulence generated by the engine exhaust. Fractus Clouds Fractus clouds are small, ragged cloud fragments that are usually found under an ambient cloud base.
They form or have broken off from a larger cloud, and are generally sheared by strong winds, giving them a jagged, shredded appearance.
Fractus have irregular patterns, appearing much like torn pieces of cotton candy. They change constantly, often forming and dissipating rapidly. They do not have clearly defined bases. Sometimes they are persistent and form very near the surface. Green Clouds Green Clouds are often associated with severe weather. The green color is not completely understood, but it is thought to have something to do with having a high amount of liquid water drops and hail inside the clouds.
In the Great Plains region of the U. Cumulus clouds, the upper parts of which resemble cauliflower, are a type of convective cloud.
These clouds form in rapidly rising air and are composed of many small water droplets. The small drops scatter light effectively and make the cloud appear bright. Likewise, if you smash up glass and separate the small pieces from the large, the grouping of small pieces will appear brighter. As a result, the cloud's boundaries appear sharp. In contrast is the cirrus uncinus, a type of ice cloud that resembles a comma.
These clouds appear diffuse near their bases, where the number of ice crystals decreases as they fall and evaporate into the dry air below.
The cloudy air mixes with the clear air, giving the diffuse appearance. Thus, how sharp a cloud boundary appears is a function of how much the cloud air mixes with the clear air environment. If the surrounding air has a low humidity, the water droplets or ice crystals that make up the cloud quickly evaporate as the cloudy air mixes with its surroundings; this results in the cloud maintaining a sharp boundary.
Have you ever painted a line on a wall? Up close the edges of the line may look wavy and interrupted. Step away, and the line looks sharp and crisp. The next time you have an opportunity to fly, observe the clouds as you pass through them. You will notice that the edges of a cloud are often diffuse. Just try to stay out of the cumulonimbus cloud, whose distinctive boundaries could give your airplane a sharp bounce.
Some spots are slightly hotter than others; it is at these locations that the water is turned to vapor. When a bubble gets large enough, the water's surface tension can no longer hold it, and so it rises.
Fluids having different densities behave quite independently. The bubble stays a bubble all the way to the top where it breaks free as steam. A spot on the earth's surface gets hotter than the surrounding area.
An example would be the black, flat tarred roof of a large building or a vacant parking lot. The air above it heats up and forms a bubble of hot air, which is less dense than the surrounding air.
Other times, the air has less water vapour and it feels drier and fresher. Clouds appear when there is too much water vapour for the air to hold. The water vapour gas then condenses to form tiny water droplets liquid , and it is the water that makes the cloud visible. These droplets are so small that they stay suspended in the air. As a simple explanation, when air rises, it cools, much like when you are going up a mountain and the air tends to get colder.
This means it turns from a gas to a liquid, much like when you get condensation on a cold window. When the water vapour turns to a liquid in the sky, it forms lots of tiny little water droplets which cling to little bits of dust; it is this group of little water droplets suspended in the air that becomes visible as the cloud we see.
These droplets of water are only about a hundredth of a millimetre in diameter, but the cloud is made up of a large collection of these.
If the cloud is high up enough in the sky and the air is cold enough, the cloud is made of lots of tiny ice crystals instead and gives a thin, wispy appearance. There is also the fact that a cloud can form when more water vapour has been added to the air, for example if it has passed over a lake, it can pick up moisture.
There is then more water vapour in that air and it condenses to form the cloud. The sun — The sun heats the ground, which then heats the air just above it, causing it to rise upwards in the sky warm air rises.
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