idea
- Stratus clouds are flat.
- Cumulus clouds are fluffy.
- Nimbus clouds bear rain.
- Prefixed by their altitude.
![[Pasted image 20240615174248.png]]
The highest clouds contain ice crystal and are prefixed by cirro.
- Cirrus are whispy (like a tail, or hair). This is due to difference of wind speed between altitude.
- Cirrostratus are high flat clouds.
- Cirrocumulus are puffy high altitude clouds.
Cirrus: ![[20240930_092730.jpg]]
Mid level are alto:
- Altostratus are mid level flat. They are unremarkable, but less shiny than cirrostratus
- Puffy mid-level = altocumulus. Some of the altocumulus have similar appearance to cirrocumulus, but they are constituted of dropplets instead of ice.
- In mid-level are often rollers because of opposite winds in low and high-levels that sometimes create cylindrical patterns
Altostratus: ![[20240929_161906.jpg]]
Low-level don't have a prefix:
- Cumulus is a puff ball usually associated with beautiful day. However, if they begin to grow vertically this is the sign of an impeding thunderstorm
- Stratus is a low level flat cloud.
- Nimbus clouds (rain clouds) are of two categories:
- Nimbostratus - flat rain bearing clouds
- Cumulonimbus - puffy rain bearing cloud (thunderstorms)
There are other types of clouds but not as predominant (e.g. lenticular, which form next to mountains)