What are low altitude clouds called?

What are low altitude clouds called?

stratus
Low clouds (stratus, stratocumulus, nimbostratus) can form anywhere from the ground to an altitude of approximately 6,000 feet. Fog is simply a low cloud in contact with the earth’s surface.

What are low gray layered clouds called?

Nimbostratus: Nimbostratus clouds cover the sky in a dark gray layer. They can extend from the low and middle layers of the atmosphere and are thick enough to blot out the sun.

What are storm clouds called?

Cumulonimbus clouds
Cumulonimbus clouds are menacing looking multi-level clouds, extending high into the sky in towers or plumes. More commonly known as thunderclouds, cumulonimbus is the only cloud type that can produce hail, thunder and lightning.

What are puffy clouds called?

Cumulus clouds
Cumulus clouds look like fluffy, white cotton balls in the sky. They are beautiful in sunsets, and their varying sizes and shapes can make them fun to observe!

What are layers of curly clouds called?

Clouds form in three basic patterns: Cirrus, from cirro, meaning curly or fibrous. Stratus, from strato, suggesting sheets or layers. Cumulus, from cumulo, indicating heaped or piled.

What are the 3 types of clouds called?

While clouds appear in infinite shapes and sizes they fall into some basic forms. From his Essay of the Modifications of Clouds (1803) Luke Howard divided clouds into three categories; cirrus, cumulus and stratus. The Latin word ‘cirro’ means curl of hair.

What are black clouds called?

Nimbostratus clouds are dark, gray clouds that seem to fade into falling rain or snow. They are so thick that they often blot out the sunlight.

What are the 4 types of clouds called?

The Four Core Types of Clouds

• Cirro-form. The Latin word ‘cirro’ means curl of hair.
• Cumulo-form. Generally detached clouds, they look like white fluffy cotton balls.
• Strato-form. From the Latin word for ‘layer’ these clouds are usually broad and fairly wide spread appearing like a blanket.
• Nimbo-form.

What are Cumuliform clouds?

Convective clouds or cumuliform clouds (Cu) look like stacks of cotton balls. They form when warm humid air rises through cooler surrounding air in the atmosphere. The buoyancy (tendency of objects to sink or rise due to density differences with their surroundings) associated with the warm air drives strong updrafts.

What are the layers of clouds?

The three main types of clouds

• High-level clouds (5-13 km): cirrocumulus, cirrus, and cirrostratus.
• Mid-level clouds (2-7 km): altocumulus, altostratus, and nimbostratus.
• Low-level clouds (0-2 km): stratus, cumulus, cumulonimbus, and stratocumulus.

What are the three classes of clouds based on altitude?

A scheme of classifying clouds according to their usual altitudes. Three classes are distinguished: high, middle, and low. High clouds include cirrus, cirrocumulus, cirrostratus, occasionally altostratus, and the tops of cumulonimbus.

What are nimbus clouds?

Nimbostratus clouds are dark, grey, featureless layers of cloud, thick enough to block out the Sun. Producing persistent rain, these clouds are often associated with frontal systems provided by mid-latitude cyclones.

What are the different types of clouds found in the atmosphere?

The list of cloud types groups the tropospheric types as high (cirrus, cirrocumulus, cirrostratus), middle (altocumulus, altostratus), multi-level (nimbostratus, cumulus, cumulonimbus), and low (stratocumulus, stratus) according to the altitude level or levels at which each cloud is normally found.

What is the scientific name for low clouds?

The names of low clouds have more variation. Low clouds can be referred to as plain “stratus” (if they’re smooth and layered) or “stratocumulus” if they have both layered and heap-like characteristics, for example. If low, layered clouds are precipitating, they’re called nimbostratus.

Are clouds of vertical development considered high or low altitude?

Clouds of vertical development (fair-weather cumulus, cumulus-congestus, cumulonimbus) cannot be classified as high, middle or low because they typically occupy more than one of the above three altitude markers.

What is the difference between middle clouds and low clouds?

Middle clouds are composed of water droplets and/or ice crystals. Low clouds (stratus, stratocumulus, nimbostratus) can form anywhere from the ground to an altitude of approximately 6,000 feet. Fog is simply a low cloud in contact with the earth’s surface.