1. Clouds

2. The meaning of the words:
Cumulus heap
stratus layer
Cirrus Curl of hair
Nimbus rain
Cirr High
Alto Mid levels

3. Cirrocumulus
A patch or layer of cloud consisting of tiny individual cloudlets at high-level is called cirrocumulus.
Like all high-level clouds, cirrocumulus is made of ice crystals.

4. Cirrus When you see cirrus you can be sure the air is very dry
Cirrus can appear at the leading edge of a warm front

5. Cirrostratus
Cirrostratus may cover the sky as a continuous sheet with no features, but it often has a fibrous look.
The cloud is so thin it is almost transparent

6. Altocumulus
The small, white, puffy clouds that sometimes slowly drift across the sky can look like dozens, of small, loose cotton balls

7. Altostratus
From the ground this altostratus looks white or slightly blue and watery. It may form a continuous sheet, as in the picture on the left, or look as though it is made from soft fibers.

8. Nimbostratus
Nimbus means rain, and stratus means sheet, so nimbostratus is a sheet cloud from which rain or snow is falling - usually continuously.

9. Stratocumulus
This cloud is called stratocumulus, meaning sheets of lumpy cloud. Stratocumulus is grey, white, or a mixture of both, usually with some darker patches.

10. Cumulonimbus
It resembles cumulus but towers much higher, with a base at 1,000-5,000 ft (300-1,500 m). Rain starts to fall. Inside this very violent cloud, air rises rapidly in the convection cells and sinks between them.

11. Cumulus
Puffy white clouds that drift across the sky on a bright summer day, like those on the right, are called cumulus

12. Stratus
Stratus clouds are the low clouds. Fog is a stratus cloud at ground level. They look like a low grey blanket. Stratus clouds bring rain or snow.

14. Cloud Cover Warm front Cold front Depression Anticyclone Trough Ridge
Cirrus, then
lowering to
stratus (layer
clouds)
Towering
cumulonimbus
(thunder
Likely to be
overcast
No cloud or
fair weather
cumulus
(anticyclonic
gloom also
possible)
weather
Overcast
Likely to be
clear