What kind of cloud is stratus

Weather prediction: Fair, but gloomy. Cumulonimbus clouds grow on hot days when warm, wet air rises very high into the sky.

From far away, they look like huge mountains or towers. Weather prediction: Look out for rain, hail, and tornadoes! Stratocumulus clouds are patchy gray or white clouds that often have a dark honeycomb-like appearance. Weather prediction: Fair weather for now, but a storm might be on its way. Contrails are made by high-flying jet airplanes. They are still clouds, though, because they are made of water droplets condensed from the water vapor in the exhaust of the jet engines.

Weather prediction: Contrails can provide information about the layers of moisture in the sky. Mammatus clouds are actually altocumulus, cirrus, cumulonimbus, or other types of clouds that have these pouch-like shapes hanging out of the bottom.

The pouches are created when cold air within the cloud sinks down toward the Earth. Weather prediction: Severe weather might be on its way! Orographic clouds get their shape from mountains or hills that force the air to move over or around them. They can also be formed by sea breezes and often appear as lines where two air masses meet. Cloud chart showing the different types of high, mid, and low-level clouds, as well as a number of other interesting cloud types and formations.

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Local Radar. Rivers and Lakes. Climate and Past Weather. Cloud Classification and Characteristics Clouds are classified according to their height above and appearance texture from the ground. The following cloud roots and translations summarize the components of this classification system : 1 Cirro- : curl of hair, high. Figure from: www. Cirrus clouds over a field cirrostratus cirrocumulus Floyd County IN. Ben Schott, NWS. Cirrus above Cirrostratus above Cirrocumulus above Altostratus above Altocumulus above Stratus above Stratocumulus above Nimbostratus above Cumulus above Cumulus congestus above Cumulonimbus above Wall cloud above Shelf cloud above Fractus scud above Mammatus above Contrails above Cloud chart showing the different types of high, mid, and low-level clouds, as well as a number of other interesting cloud types and formations.

Fog above. Weather Story. Weather Map. Follow us on Twitter. Follow us on Facebook. Follow us on YouTube. Cirrocumulus clouds exhibit features from both cumulus and cirrus clouds but should not be confused with altocumulus clouds.

While the two can look similar, cirrocumulus does not have shading and some parts of altocumulus are darker than the rest. Cirrocumulus cloud comes after cirrus cloud during warm frontal system. Cirrostratus clouds have a sheet-like appearance that can look like a curly blanket covering the sky. Their color varies from light gray to white and the fibrous bands can vary widely in thickness. Purely white cirrostratus clouds signify these have stored misture, indicating the presence of a warm frontal system.

Some of the best cloud pictures involve cirrostratus clouds because the ice crystals beautifully refract light from the sun or moon producing a dazzling halo effect. Cirrostratus clouds can turn into altostratus clouds if these descend to a lower altitude. As a nice piece of trivia, cirrostratus clouds almost always move in a westerly direction. The sight of them usually means rainfall is imminent in the next 24 hours.

They usually appear between lower stratus clouds and higher cirrus clouds, and normally precede altostratus when a warm frontal system is advancing. When altocumulus appears with another cloud type at the same time, storm normally follows. Altocumulus clouds are common in most parts of the world. Altocumulus clouds are quite common in most parts of the globe.

They usually grow by convection, in most cases after damp air rises to mix with descending dry air. Altocumulus clouds may also form in combination with other types of clouds like cumulonimbus. The amount of rainfall from altocumulus is projected from light to moderate. Altostratus often spread over thousands of square miles and are strongly linked to light rain or snow. Stratus nebulosus opacus St neb op. Stratus nebulosus St neb. Stratus St , Altostratus As. Stratus nebulosus translucidus St neb tr.

Stratus St. Stratus nebulosus opacus St neb. Stratus Cloud Facts. Gray to dark gray. Cloudy to mostly cloudy. Stratus Cloud Species.