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Here is a description of 10 main cloud types, beggining with the low clouds! This little guide includes: -different types of clouds -how to identify them -what do they mean to the weather -------------------------------------------------------- Sourse: How to read the weather Storm Dunlop ----------------------------------------- ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1. Cumulus (Cu) Cumulus clouds are the ''fair-weather'' clouds - those small fluffy heaps of snow that children usually draw. They form when the surface is heated by the sun and invisible bubbles of warm air start to rise from the surface. Cumulus clouds have flat , slightly darker bases. The bases of a group of cumulus clouds will lie at the same height above the ground, and their rounded tops are roughly at the same level. Cumulus clouds indicate that there will not be dramatic changes to the weather anytime soon. 2. Stratocumulus (Sc) Stratocumulus clouds are a layer of cumulus-like clouds spread out into a layer of stratocumulus. There are always distinct breaks between them, but they might have considerable differences in their size. Stratocumulus is a very common type of clouds that forms over the ocean. It suggests that the weather is not changing rapidly. Usually they can't bring any rain to speak of, and perhaps none at all. Instead Sc clouds can produce fine drizzle, light powdering of snow and fall of tiny ice crystals. 3. Stratus (St) Stratus is a featurless cloud that usualy shrouds the ground- especially around high ground. (mountains, tall buildings and etc.) To anyone within the cloud, the cloud appers as fog or mist. They tend to form near coasts, wehn warm, humid rain cools the drop in the temperature overnight. St clouds are similar to the stratocumulus cloud, they cannot produce and rain. but may give a rise to slight drizzle, or light snowfall. 4. Altocumulus (Ac) Altocumulus is a middle layer cloud, similar to stratocumulus except Ac clouds are higher in the atmosphere. Unlike cirrocumulus, which is even higher, Ac clouds always show shading. Some species of Ac (that i will probably never describe) give important clues to the forthcoming thundery weather, but generally they do not indicate any immediate changes, but if they are gradually turning int altostratus they are indicative of major changes to come. 5. Altostratus (As) Altostratus is a relatively featureless medium-level cloud. It is a good indicator of approaching persistent rain, particularly when it appears as increasing and thickening layer. Altostratus itself rarely produces any rain that reaches the ground, but it precedes nimbostratus, which brings long-lasting rain that does. 6. Cirrus (Ci) Cirrus, one of the high cloud types, has a distinctive structure, being composed of ice crystals. Although the crystals of ice reflect light so that at the day time they appear white and without shadows, occasionally Ci may be so dense that it appears a darker grey. Cirrus usually shows a denser head and long trailing streamers of ice crystals, that are known as 'fallstreaks'. Fallstreaks can be hooked, curved, straight or appear quite random. Bands of jet-stream cirrus are an important indicator of the approach and development of depression systems, and are the only way in which the jet streams are directly visible from the ground. 7. Cirrostratus (Cs) Cirrostratus is a thin veil of ice crystal cloud. It usually appears as cirrus cloud spreads out across the sky. Initially cirrostratus is always very thin, and the sun and moon are visible through it. It is often accompanied by a halo (as in the picture above). If a halo appears it will only be visible for a short period, dissapearing as the layer of cirrostratus becomes thicker. If you see a thin almost colourless halo, it is almost always caused by the cirrostratus cloud. 8. Cirrocumulus (Cs) Cirrocumulus is the last of three high clous. As the name suggests this is a layer of tiny cloudlets, again consisting of ice crystals, which if often difficult to distinguish from altocumulus. Technically, it is defined by the size of the individual cloudlets, which are smaller than those of the altocumulus and they do not show any signs of shading. It is relatively rare and does not show any particular signs of the forthcoming changes of weather. 9. Nimbostratus (Ns) Nimbostratus is a deep, dark grey layer of clouds and is the main rain-bearing cloud in depressions in both summer and winter. If altostratus lowers and thickens, and the rain starts to fall, the cloud has turned into nimbostratus. The rain will be more or less continous and may persist for many hours. In winter, if the rain is falling into a layer of cloud below freezing, nimbostratus may produce long periods of snowfall. 10. Cumulonimbus (Cb) The rain-bearing cloud, cumulonimbus, is related to cumulus and often begins in a similar fashion. But instead of fluffy clouds, multiple individual cloud cells combine into one big cloud. This cloud produces showers and forms thunderclouds. The clouds are very deep and often extend through the whole troposhpere/ ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Thank you for reading! If you'd like to you can ask me some questions about those types of clouds! I I think this thread would be helpful for modders that develop visual enhancement addons! So, yeah, @blackrack, i think this will be somewhat useful for you, if not, sorry for disturbance . ----------------------------------------------- Also, here is a picture i took when i was going back to Moscow from London. ----------------------