Types of Clouds

Is that a space weapon you see in this photo? Not at all. This scientist in China is launching tiny crystals of silver iodide into the air to make rain. Clouds often contain water droplets that have cooled below 0°C. But the droplets do not freeze unless they can condense onto solid particles. When the silver iodide crystals reach the clouds, the droplets can condense onto them. Once that happens, the droplets can fall as rain. Some scientists think that cloud seeding can increase rainfall by 10 percent. Others think that this is unlikely. In the United States, several western states are trying cloud seeding. Dry states, such as Wyoming and Utah, need as much rainfall as they can get.

How Clouds are form?

The Role of Cooling

The Role of the Particles

What are clouds?

How Clouds Form Clouds form when warm, moist air rises and cools. Clouds

What is the difference between dew and frost?

Cloud Types There are many different types of clouds. Clouds Cirrus Cumulonimbus Fog Cumulus Altocumulus Altostratus Cirrocumulus Nimbostratus Stratus

Type of Clouds Scientists classify clouds into three main types based on their shape: cirrus, cumulus, and stratus. Each type of cloud is associated with a different type of weather.

Cirrus Clouds feathery looking- thin with fuzzy edges that look like feathers look like horse tails usually occur in fair weather they form at high altitudes, usually above 6 km, and at low temperatures. rain or snow may be on the way higher than where airplanes fly

Cumulus Clouds look like floating cotton, large cotton balls are seen in the sky for 5-40 minutes closer to the earth than cirrus clouds they form less than 2 km above the ground, but they may extend upward as much as 18 km. Short cumulus clouds usually indicate fair weather, but towering clouds with flat tops often produce thunderstorms. They are then called cumulonimbus clouds. (The suffix –nimbus means “rain.”)

Stratus Clouds looks like flat sheets lowest clouds in the sky almost like you could reach out and touch them when stratus clouds are close to the ground, they are called fog if they stay for a long time andare dull gray and may produce drizzle, rain, or snow. They are then called nimbostratus clouds.

Clouds and Weather What kind of weather can be predicted from each type of cloud? Clouds

Precipitation Any form of water that falls from clouds and reaches Earth’s surface is precipitation. Common types of precipitation include rain, sleet, freezing rain, snow, and hail. Measuring Rain An open-ended can or tube that collects rainfall is called a rain gauge.

Water Droplets Cloud droplets condense to become larger droplets. Precipitation Rain Rain is the most common. Drops of water are called rain if they are at least 0.5 millimeters in diameter. Smaller drops of water are called drizzle, and even smaller ones are called mist.

Measuring Rain An open-ended can or tube that collects rainfall is called a rain gauge Rain Gauge The rain gauge, measuring in centimeters, collects ten times the actual depth of rain that falls

Freezing Precipitation There are four types of freezing precipitation: freezing rain, snow, sleet, and hail.

Freezing Rain Freezing rain is rain that freezes when it hits a cold surface.

Snow When clouds are colder, water vapor can convert directly into ice crystals, forming snow.

Sleet When raindrops fall through a layer of air colder than 0°C, they can freeze into ice particles. Ice particles smaller than 5 millimeters in diameter are called sleet.

Hail Round pellets of ice larger than 5 mm in diameter are called hailstones. Hail forms only inside cumulonimbus clouds during thunderstorms. It forms when strong updrafts repeatedly carry ice pellets through cold regions of a cloud, adding another layer of ice each time.

Freezing Precipitation What would be the air and ground temperature ranges for each type of precipitation? Precipitation

What did you Learn? Cloud Quiz!