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Clouds can be a great source of information about what the weather will be like in the next few hours. Knowing how to understand them and differentiate their different types can be especially useful for fans of outdoor activities, but also for travelers who are going to take a plane or a boat or for a wide variety of commercial sectors, such as agriculture. Therefore, knowing the clouds a little better can be really useful.
If you want to learn to differentiate the main types of clouds and what are their most important characteristics, join us in this Green Ecologist article in which we give you the names of cloud types, their characteristics and photos of all of them.
Clouds: what are they and how do they form?
Despite its cotton look, clouds are clusters of water droplets suspended in the atmosphere, but that become visible when reaching certain concentrations.
Its formation occurs when the warm air updraft catches water vapor and humidity in the atmosphere. At a certain height, this water vapor condenses due to the cold, forming tiny drops of water or ice crystals.
In the case of drops, they take a spherical shape and a size between 0.004 and 0.1 mm. Since they are in suspension, their erratic movement causes them to collide and group together, giving rise to the clouds that we see. When the right circumstances are met, the thickness of these droplets can increase, thus causing precipitation.
Learn more about this process with these other Green Ecologist articles about What is the water cycle and How clouds form.
Cloud types - list
This is a list of the names of the main types of clouds:
Types of high clouds
- Cirrus
- Cirrocumulus
- Cirrostratus
Middle cloud types
- Altostratus
- Altocumulus
- Nimbostratus
Low cloud types
- Stratocumulus
- Strata
Types of vertical clouds
- Cumulus clouds
- Cumulonimbus
Image: Pinterest
Types of high clouds
The high clouds are those that are formed in medium and low latitudes and at altitudes above 6,000 meters. At such a height the air is at a very low temperature and has very little humidity, so these clouds are formed mainly by ice crystals. They tend to be thin and intensely white in color.
Cirrus
Cirrus clouds are clouds that take the form of thin filaments, as if they were hair or fibers of some kind. They are exclusively made up of ice crystals. If they are seen in large areas and you can see how the wind moves them, it means that warmer airs are approaching with the possibility of precipitation in between 24 and 36 hours.
Cirrocumulus
Cirrocumulus form a thick white blanket or blanket over the sky. Each of its small parts is totally white and does not make shadows. It is an unusual type of cloud to see, which is usually preceded by a notable change in the weather in less than 12 hours, usually by storms.
Cirrostratus
The cirrostratus or cirrostratus form an even more concentrated veil or tapestry, taking on the appearance of a pale, translucent veil. They tend to be of great extension, and a marked lunar or solar halo is always distinguished when their light passes through them. Warm fronts or moderate storms precede.
Here below you can see photos of the types of clouds mentioned here and in the same order.
Middle cloud types
The middle clouds are formed in altitudes between 2,000 and 7,000 meters. They are usually composed of raindropsalthough if the temperature is low enough, they may contain ice crystals.
Altostratus
These clouds form a distinctly gray blanket that tends to cover the entire sky in large areas. You can make out the sun or moon against some thin sections of the upper stratum, without completely covering them. They do not cast shadows on the ground.
Altocumulus
They resemble cirrocumulus in their tapestry form with some regular pattern, but differ from them because altocumulus tend to have a darker part and a lighter part. They take on the appearance of small rolled masses. If they appear in the first hours of humid and warm days, they usually mean a storm for the last hours of the day.
Nimbostratus
The nimbostratus form a dense layer of dark and gray clouds, they are able to completely hide the sun and are characterized by bringing precipitation in the form of rain.
Here below you can see images of cloud types mentioned here and in the same order.
Low cloud types
The low clouds are formed by below 2,000 meters and only in colder climates can they contain particles of snow or ice, being usual that they are composed entirely of water.
Stratocumulus
They form a layer of patches or rows of rounded and jumbled masses, revealing a blue sky between them. They are of various shades of gray and of considerable size and, furthermore, they rarely involve precipitation.
Strata
A low, gray mist darker than that of the Altostratus that does not descend to the ground. They generally do not precipitate beyond very light drizzles, although they usually do not do so at all.
To learn more about the clouds that can form snow and ice, we advise you to read these other posts on How snow and hail form and What is a snow storm and how it forms.
Here we show you photos of the types of clouds here mentioned and in the same order, above stratocumulus and below strata.
Types of vertical clouds
These clouds are very striking and easy to distinguish, since their base can be very close to the surface and they develop upwards, being able to exceed 10,000 meters in altitude. These are the two types of vertical clouds:
Cumulus clouds
They are one of the most typical clouds to draw, with rounded shapes like pieces of cotton separated from each other in the sky, with tips in the shape of a dome or tower. When their vertical development is small they imply good weather.
Cumulonimbus
Clusters that grow very large can form cumulonimbus clouds. They are clouds with a dark base that can be found just over 500 meters from the ground, and with an upper part that exceeds altitudes of 10,000 meters. They are impressive and imposing, and contain water at the base and ice at the top. They can cause precipitation of all kinds.
Here you can see images of cloud types here mentioned and in the same order, cumulus clouds above and cumulonimbus below. In addition, we leave you a video from our YouTube channel in which you will see all these clouds and thus you can differentiate them better.
If you liked discovering the different types of clouds, their names, characteristics and photos and you want to learn more about them, we recommend these other posts by Green Ecologist about Why clouds are white and Why few clouds form in desert areas . Also, did you know that trees influence cloud and rain formation? Here you can find out everything about this curious phenomenon: Why trees attract rain.
If you want to read more articles similar to Types of clouds: names, characteristics and photosWe recommend that you enter our Nature Curiosities category.
