We have so many things on this earth that we live in, and all these things are a mixture of so many other things. We are not even aware of so many things, but many people researched and are still trying to find out the things that hide in nature. Among all the natural things on the earth, one of the most fascinating is clouds. When we look at it, we can see a ball of kinds of cotton substance in the sky, and they are so many, but they are more than that, and they are not cotton. In reality, water droplets make clouds that float in the sky.
Clouds are very important for this earth as it plays so many parts in the sky. We only look at white or black clouds, but we do not know that clouds have types. You can also find great facts about clouds from the cheap ebook writing service that have writers with knowledge about them.
The sky is entirely water, but it is not visible to us as the drops are too small. The water turns into a gas, and then they become water vapour.
As the vapour goes up and reaches a higher level in the sky, it has a cooler temperature. The cool air makes the drops cling to each other and dust particles, sea salt or ice, and it is visible as a cloud.
People still try to find out more about the clouds, but the main things about clouds we know are linked to the weather conditions. As we know, when snow falls, it happens from the clouds, and when it rains, it happens from clouds.
But there are groups of clouds with branches of ten cloud types that people found out in modern times.
There are four major cloud groups: high clouds, middle clouds, low clouds, and clouds with vertical development. Now the types are the branches of these groups like High clouds: Cirrus, Cirrostratus, and Cirrocumulus.
Group of clouds
High Clouds
Cirrus
Cirrocumulus
Cirrostratus
These clouds are high because they stay at the heights; the elevation is 20,000 feet or higher than that. The air is cold at the higher level, freezing the drops in the clouds into the ice crystals. These are “supercooled” droplets that can stay in the liquid form and below 32 degrees.
The crystal of ice works like a prism and makes light divide into different colours. The high clouds can provide some amazing optical effects that enable us to see a red sky in the morning and at night. One of the types under this group is Cirrus is a link through the cirrostratus clouds, which is one more type of cloud. It comes out as a thin sheet in the sky, and these thin cirrus clouds become thick to structure the cirrostratus clouds. The moon or the sun will shine its beams through the cirrostratus and takes a form of a halo. Now we know that how the sky looks so beautiful and how different it can become because of these clouds.
Sometimes the Cirrus clouds become thick and turn small like a cotton ball. Also, they can appear as the fish’s scales, so at that time, the sky fills with the Cirrocumulus, and people call it a “mackerel sky”. These clouds do not just look beautiful. They give a sign of a storm as well. As soon as the storm is about to come, the high clouds are the first clouds to come out in the sky, and this is how we get to know about the changes in the weather.
Middle clouds
Altostratus
Altocumulus
The other clouds are the middle clouds, and they are also at the elevations as they are just below the high clouds. They are about 6,500 feet to 20,000 feet. As the middle clouds are near the high clouds, they contain ice crystals and droplets. The types under this group are “alto”, which are Altocumulus and altostratus.
The altostratus clouds are like the cirrostratus clouds, but they are lower and thicker. It means that because of these clouds, the moon or sun is more under cover of them. They do not make halos like Cirrostratus clouds and let vague light pass. So the altocumulus clouds are a similar but lower version of the cirrocumulus clouds. They are also thicker and larger, like a thick cotton ball. The sky is visible in grey colour because of the thickness. After these middle clouds get the way from the high cirrus clouds, it is a sign that rain is about to come.
Low clouds
Stratus
Stratocumulus
Nimbostratus
The low clouds are also on the elevations, but a little below the middle clouds, so they are below 6,500 ft. they mostly contain water, but in winter, they are snow if the temperature is too cold. The Stratus clouds are one of the types of clouds under this group, and they are in the form of fog.
When the stratus clouds provide rain, they become the nimbostratus clouds which are another type. The colour of this cloud is grey or dark, and they are come out with a base that is flat in shape. It sometimes happens that the stratus clouds become puffy and round; it then becomes the stratocumulus clouds which are another type of clouds.
Clouds with the vertical development
Cumulus
Cumulonimbus
We know about the clouds in the elevation and a particular level of the atmosphere, but some clouds extend throughout all the different levels of elevations. These clouds link with atmospheric currents that move upwards and are strong.
The pressure that upwards helps the moisture spread by a large line of the atmosphere, and the clouds become puffy or like a tower. The precipitations from these clouds are heavy as the clouds become convective, but they do not last long. So these clouds are the cumulus clouds which are a type of this group of clouds with the vertical development.
These clouds, which have a puffy structure, are less in number in the vertical development, and they are a sign of fair weather. But when these clouds make up a tower and become a cluster, then they grow into a heavy and strong thunderstorm in an hour. These cumulus clouds that form the tower delivers rain with thunder and lightning; here, it becomes the cumulonimbus clouds which is the second type of cloud under this group. If these clouds grow bigger, they can become stronger and can even bring tornadoes.