1 Is the Sky A Book? Can It Tell A Story? By: Lynn Vaughan

2 Read the Sky? People often read the sky. Why? To tell if a storm is coming, or if the air is clean,or even what kind of clothes to wear.

3 When I look outside I see… A rabbit, a sheep, a bear, and sometimes a horse’s tail. No, what I really see is ….

4 A Cloud

5 What Are Clouds? A cloud is made up of tiny water droplets and or ice crystals. Therefore, a snowflake is a collection of many ice crystals. Rain is the liquid form of water.

6 Does a Cloud Have a Name? Scientists have names for clouds. Some clouds are high and some are low. Names of specific types of clouds are created by combining the name of the cloud’s shape with the cloud’s height. Clouds come in three basic shapes.

7 Stratus Cumulus Cirrus

8 Stratus Stratus clouds are horizontal layered clouds that stretch out across the sky and look like a blanket.

9 How Big is a Stratus Cloud? A stratus cloud may be small and cover only part of the sky or it may extend 100 miles. Sometimes you can see the sun or moon through a stratus cloud.

10 What Makes the Sky Overcast? Dull and gray stratus clouds can cause the sky to be overcast. A stratus cloud may bring some drizzle, but not rain. Stratus clouds often form into nimbostratus. These clouds are darker and their bottoms are not smooth.

11 Cumulus Cumulus clouds are low, puffy, water droplet clouds.

12 When Do Cumulus Clouds Appear? When the sun heats the earth and the earth heats the air above it. So what kind of cloud brings hard, sudden rain?

13 Cumulus clouds bring hard sudden rain. Then they get a new name. They are called cumulonimbus. Cumulonimbus clouds are often swollen at the top and bulging at the bottom. Rainstorms from cumulonimbus clouds are often called thunderstorms...Cumulus Clouds

14 Big Cumulonimbus Clouds They can produce big, powerful, violent storms on earth called tornadoes.

15 What Causes Lightning? A sky crowded with rapidly growing Cumulus clouds can produce lightning.

16 Cirrus Cirrus Clouds are very wispy and feathery looking. They are often called “mares tails” because they look like the tail of a horse.

17 What is Behind That Plane? Water vapor shoots out the back of a jet engine with the hot gases of the engine exhaust. When the jet exhaust strikes the cold, high-altitude air, its water vapor freezes into ice crystals. The ice crystals follow behind the moving jet in white lines called contrails.

18 Contrails A contrail is like an artificial cirrus cloud, white, high and made of ice crystals.

19 Other High Clouds Cirrus clouds have two cousins, cirrostratus and cirrocumulus. Cirrostratus are thin, veil-like bands, while cirrocumulus look like a flock of tiny sheep. They do not produce precipitation, but sometimes are warning signs of rain or snow.

20 Low Clouds Cumulus, Stratus, and Stratocumulus

21 High Clouds Cirrus, Cirrostratus, and Cirrocumulus

22 Middle Clouds Clouds that are not high or low are called altostratus and altocumulus. These in- between clouds may be signs that wet weather is on the way.

23 Do Clouds Affect What I Wear? When the sun shines the air gets warmer, but when it’s cloudy, the clouds block the sunlight and the temperature goes down. You may need a jacket or even a blanket.

24 Does the Earth Have a Blanket? Clouds covering the nighttime sky act like a blanket. Clouds hold down the heat that the earth absorbs during the day and keeps the heat from escaping into space. On nights when there are no clouds, it is cooler than cloudy nights.

25 Clouds Affect…

26 Research… Do clouds affect temperature?

27 For Help Lynn Vaughan AMSTI-GLOBE Resource Specialist Robin Nelson AMSTI-GLOBEwww.amsti.org/globe The GLOBE Program Jerry Cobbs AMSTI-GLOBE Technology Specialist