

The three different types of clouds are high clouds (because they are high in the sky), medium clouds and low clouds (just over 10,000 feet high or 3 km. Clouds are put into categories according to their shape, how high they are in the sky, their size, how fast and in what direction they are moving, etc. You can tell a lot by looking at a cloud's shape, size and texture. It's a never-ending cycle but one that keeps the earth balanced. How else do you think astronauts see where they are going? More importantly, clouds replenish our water supply.

They cool the earth by reflecting sunlight back out to space. Cirrus clouds are also known as ‘mare’s tail’ because of their appearance. When enough droplets get together they fall to the ground as rain or if it's very cold, they freeze and fall down as snow, sleet or hail.Ĭlouds play an important role in the energy balance of Earth. These are thin hair-like clouds completely made of ice crystals. Cumulus/cumulo : heaped up/puffy, like cauliflower. The term fumulus is a legacy term that refers to cumulus homogenitus clouds. Clouds created through other human-related activity such as powerplants can be classified as cumulus homogenitus and stratus homogenitus. The result is clouds, unless it's on the ground - then we call it fog. Most of our names for clouds come from Latin and are usually a combination of the following prefixes and suffixes: Stratus/strato : flat/layered and smooth. Note that the cloud classification of cirrus homogenitus cannot include other cloud species, varieties, or features. The water vapor cools and turns back into a liquid in the shape of tiny droplets. cumulus, nimbus and then combinations such as cumulonimbus, a tall, vertical rain cloud that looks a little like a wannabe cyclone or nuclear explosion that never touches the ground. When water on land or in the ocean evaporates - turns from a liquid to water vapor - it rises. The fact is just like cloud formations cloud adoption patterns cluster in various forms for various reasons.
