Types of Clouds

1. Weather
Types of Clouds

2. Stratus Clouds

Cumulus Clouds

Cirrus Clouds

There are 3 main types of clouds

3. Stratus clouds are low, sheetlike gray
clouds.
Sometimes they look like a gray blanket
covering the whole sky.
Cloudy days = sky covered with stratus
clouds
Some stratus bring rain

Stratus Clouds

4. Stratus Clouds

5. Cumulus clouds are puffy clouds. They are often flat on
the bottom. You see white cumulus clouds in nice
weather.
Usually higher than stratus clouds.
Often spread out, with blue sky between them.


Cumulus Clouds

6. Cumulus Clouds

7. Sometimes they grow vertically (higher up in the sky),
become bigger, and darker.

They fill with rain and become Cumulonimbus clouds.

Nimbus/Nimbo means rain.


Cumulus Clouds

8. Cumulonimbus Clouds

9. The highest clouds are cirrus clouds. They are wispy and
look like feathers in the sky.

Cirrus clouds form where the air is very cold, so they are
made up of ice crystals.

These clouds form in fair weather, but rainy weather
often follows a few days later.

Cirrus Clouds

10. Stratus Clouds

11. Not all clouds form high in the sky.

Fog is a cloud that is at or near the ground.

If you go outside on a foggy day, you walk through a
cloud.

Fog

12. Fog

13. Other varieties of clouds - page D44