Cloudiness and limited visibility as the main factors determining the complexity of meteorological conditions. The most unusual types of clouds
You don't need a supercomputer to predict how the weather overhead will change in the next few hours. By watching the sky and having some knowledge of cloud formation, it is possible to predict whether it will rain.
Modern weather forecasts are based on complex computer simulations. These simulations use physical equations that describe the atmosphere, including the movement of air, solar heat forming clouds and rain. The gradual improvement of forecasts over time means that today's five-day forecasts are as accurate as three-day forecasts were 20 years ago.
But you don't need a supercomputer to predict how the weather overhead will change in the next few hours - such signs are known in different cultures for many thousands of years. By watching the sky and having some knowledge of cloud formation, it is possible to predict whether it will rain.
What's more, a little understanding of the physics of cloud formation highlights the complexity of the atmosphere and sheds light on why predicting weather beyond a few days is such a challenge.
Here are six types of clouds you can see and how they can help you understand the weather.
1) Cumulus clouds
Clouds form when air cools down to its dew point, the temperature at which the air can no longer handle the water vapor it contains. At this temperature, water vapor condenses and forms droplets of liquid water, which we see as a cloud. For this to happen, the air must be forced to rise in the atmosphere, or moist air must come into contact with a cold surface.
On a sunny day, the rays warm the ground, which warms the air directly above it. The heated air rises due to convection and forms cumulus clouds. These "good weather" clouds are like cotton wool. If you look at a sky filled with cumulus clouds, you can see that they have a flat bottom, located at the same level for all the clouds. At this altitude, air rising from ground level cools down to the dew point. It usually does not rain from cumulus clouds, which means that the weather will be good.
2) Cumulus rain clouds
Small cumulus clouds do not rain, but if they increase and grow in height, this is a sign that heavy rain is coming soon. This often happens in the summer when morning cumulus clouds turn into cumulonimbus during the day.
Close to the ground, the cumulonimbus clouds are well-defined, but with height they begin to become more smoky at the edges. Such a transition indicates that the cloud no longer consists of water drops, but of ice crystals. When gusts of wind blow water droplets out of the cloud, they quickly evaporate in a drier environment, which is why water clouds have very sharply defined edges. Ice crystals blown out of the cloud do not evaporate as quickly, making the edges of the cloud look more hazy.
Cumulonimbus clouds often have a flat top. Air convection occurs inside such a cloud, and it gradually cools until it reaches the temperature of the surrounding atmosphere. At this point, he loses buoyancy and can no longer rise higher. Instead, it spreads laterally, forming the characteristic shape of an anvil.
3) Cirrus clouds
Cirrus clouds form in very high layers of the atmosphere. They are smoky because they are made entirely of ice crystals falling through the atmosphere. If cirrus clouds are carried by winds moving at different speeds, they take on a characteristic curved shape. And only at very high altitudes or at high latitudes cirrus clouds give out rain that reaches the ground.
But if you notice that cirrus clouds are starting to cover a large area of the sky, getting lower and thicker, then this is a sure sign of a warm front approaching. In a warm front, warm and cold air masses meet. The lighter warm air rises above the cold air, causing clouds to form. The lowering of the clouds indicates the approach of the front, and that it will rain in the next 12 hours.
4) Layered clouds
A stratus cloud is a low-lying, continuous sheet of cloud that covers the sky. Stratus clouds are formed by slowly rising air or light winds covering moist air. cold earth or the surface of the sea. The stratus clouds are thin, therefore, despite the gloomy picture, it is unlikely to rain from them, at most a slight drizzle. Stratus clouds are identical to fog, so if you've ever walked through a mountainous area on a foggy day, you've been inside a cloud.
5) Lenticular clouds
The last two types of clouds will not help you predict the weather, but they will give you a glimpse of the extremely complex movements of the atmosphere. Smooth and lenticular lenticular clouds form when air is blown up and over a mountain range.
Having crossed the mountain, the air descends to its previous level. At this time, it warms up and the cloud evaporates. But it can slip further, as a result of which the air rises again and forms another lenticular cloud. This can lead to the appearance of a chain of clouds extending far beyond the boundaries of the mountain range. The interaction of wind with mountains and other surface features is one of the many details that must be taken into account in computer simulations to obtain accurate predictions weather.
6) Kelvin - Helmholtz
And finally, my favourites. Kelvin-Helmholtz clouds resemble a breaking ocean wave. When air masses at different heights move horizontally at different speeds, their state becomes unstable. The boundary between the air masses begins to ripple and form large waves.
Such clouds are quite rare - I personally saw them the only time over Jutland, western Denmark - because we can only observe this process in the atmosphere if there is a cloud in the lower air mass. Then it can outline breaking waves and detect intricate movements going on above our heads that are not normally visible. published
If you have any questions on this topic, ask them to specialists and readers of our project.
By international classification distinguish 10 main types of clouds of different tiers.
> UPPER CLOUDS(h>6km) 
Spindrift clouds(Cirrus, Ci) - these are separate clouds of a fibrous structure and a whitish hue. Sometimes they have a very regular structure in the form of parallel threads or stripes, sometimes on the contrary, their fibers are tangled and scattered across the sky in separate spots. Cirrus clouds are transparent because they are made up of tiny ice crystals. Often the appearance of such clouds portends a change in the weather. From satellites, cirrus clouds are sometimes difficult to distinguish.
cirrocumulus clouds(Cirrocumulus, Cc) - a layer of clouds, thin and translucent, like cirrus, but consisting of individual flakes or small balls, and sometimes, as it were, of parallel waves. These clouds usually form, figuratively speaking, a "cumulus" sky. Often they appear together with cirrus clouds. They are visible before storms.
Cirrostratus clouds(Cirrostratus, Cs) - a thin, translucent whitish or milky cover, through which the disk of the Sun or Moon is clearly visible. This cover can be homogeneous, like a layer of fog, or fibrous. On cirrostratus clouds, a characteristic optical phenomenon is observed - a halo (bright circles around the Moon or the Sun, a false Sun, etc.). Like cirrus, cirrostratus clouds often indicate the approach of inclement weather.
> MIDDLE CLOUDS(h=2-6 km)
They differ from similar cloud forms of the lower tier great height, lower density and higher probability of the presence of an ice phase. 
Altocumulus clouds(Altocumulus, Ac) - a layer of white or gray clouds, consisting of ridges or separate "blocks", between which the sky is usually translucent. The ridges and "clumps" that form the "feathery" sky are relatively thin and arranged in regular rows or in a checkerboard pattern, less often in disorder. Cirrus skies are usually a sign of pretty bad weather.
Altostratus clouds(Altostratus, As) - a thin, less often dense veil of a grayish or bluish hue, in some places heterogeneous or even fibrous in the form of white or gray patches all over the sky. The sun or the moon shines through it in the form of bright spots, sometimes quite weak. These clouds are a sure sign of light rain.
> LOWER CLOUDS(h According to many scientists, nimbostratus clouds are assigned to the lower tier illogically, since only their bases are located in this tier, and the tops reach a height of several kilometers (cloud levels of the middle tier). These heights are more characteristic of clouds of vertical development, and therefore, some scientists refer them to clouds of the middle tier.
Stratocumulus clouds(Stratocumulus, Sc) - a cloud layer consisting of ridges, shafts or their individual elements, large and dense, gray in color. There are almost always darker areas.
The word "cumulus" (from the Latin "heap", "heap") denotes a stinginess, a heap of clouds. These clouds rarely bring rain, only sometimes they turn into nimbostratus, from which rain or snow falls.
stratus clouds(Stratus, St) - a rather homogeneous layer of low gray clouds devoid of the correct structure, very similar to fog that has risen to the ground for a hundred meters. Layered clouds cover large spaces, look like torn patches. In winter, these clouds are often held all day, precipitation on the ground usually does not fall from them, sometimes there is a drizzle. In summer, they quickly dissipate, after which fine weather sets in.
Nimbostratus clouds(Nimbostratus, Ns, Frnb) are dark gray clouds, sometimes threatening. Often low dark fragments of broken rain clouds appear below their layer - typical harbingers of rain or snowfall.
> VERTICAL EVOLUTION CLOUD
Cumulus clouds (Cumulus, Cu)- dense, sharply defined, with a flat, relatively dark base and a domed white, as if swirling, top, reminiscent of a cauliflower. They begin as small white shards, but soon a horizontal base forms and the cloud begins to rise imperceptibly. With little humidity and weak vertical ascent air masses cumulus clouds portend clear weather. Otherwise, they accumulate during the day and can cause a thunderstorm.
Cumulonimbus (Cumulonimbus, Cb)- powerful cloud masses with strong vertical development (up to a height of 14 kilometers), giving heavy showers with thunderstorms. They develop from cumulus clouds, differing from them in the upper part, consisting of ice crystals. These clouds are associated with squally winds, heavy precipitation, thunderstorms, and hail. The lifetime of these clouds is short - up to four hours. The base of the clouds has dark color, and the white peak goes far up. In the warm season, the peak can reach the tropopause, and in the cold season, when convection is suppressed, the clouds are flatter. Usually clouds do not form a continuous cover. As a cold front passes, cumulonimbus clouds can form a swell. The sun does not shine through cumulonimbus clouds. Cumulonimbus clouds form when the air mass is unstable, when there is an active upward movement of air. These clouds also often form on a cold front when cold air hits a warm surface.
Each genus of clouds, in turn, is divided into types according to the features of the shape and internal structure, for example, fibratus (fibrous), uncinus (claw-like), spissatus (dense), castellanus (tower-shaped), floccus (flaky), stratiformis (layered-different ), nebulosus (foggy), lenticularis (lenticular), fractus (torn), humulus (flat), mediocris (medium), congestus (powerful), calvus (bald), capillatus (hairy). Types of clouds, further, have varieties, for example, vertebratus (ridge-like), undulatus (wavy), translucidus (translucent), opacus (non-translucent), etc. Further, additional features of clouds are distinguished, such as incus (anvil), mamma (mammoth) , vigra (falling stripes), tuba (trunk), etc. And, finally, evolutionary features are noted that indicate the origin of clouds, for example, Cirrocumulogenitus, Altostratogenitus, etc.
When observing clouds, it is important to determine by eye the degree of sky coverage on a scale of ten. Clear sky - 0 points. Clearly, there are no clouds in the sky. If it is covered with clouds no more than 3 points warm the firmament, it is slightly cloudy. Cloudy with a clearing of 4 points. This means that clouds cover half of the firmament, but at times their number decreases to "clear". When the sky is half closed, cloudiness is 5 points. If they say "sky with gaps", they mean that the cloudiness is not less than 5, but not more than 9 points. Overcast - the sky is completely covered with clouds of a single blue gap. Cloudiness 10 points.
To an observer from the ground it seems that the clouds are approximately at the same level, but in reality there are several types of clouds, based on their height above the surface of the planet.
Clouds are atmospheric formations consisting of droplets or ice crystals that form during the condensation of steam. Vertical distance between formations different types may be several kilometers.
Morphological classification of clouds
According to the modern classification, 10 main cloud forms are distinguished, divided into many types and varieties. There are more than 90 varieties, many are not introduced even to students in meteorological practice. The types of clouds are studied by schoolchildren in the 6th grade, a simplified classification is given in geography textbooks for children.
In appearance, the forms are distinguished:
- cumulus - cumulus;
- stratus - layered;
- cirrus - pinnate;
- nimbus - rain.
According to the distance from the earth's surface, clouds are:
- cir - high;
- alto - medium;
- low.
Below is a description with a photo of the types of clouds. Comparison is given atmospheric formations located on different levels from the surface of the planet.
Upper clouds
Located above 6 km from the ground:
Middle clouds
Formed at a distance of 2 to 6 km from the ground:
Lower clouds
Located below 2 km from the ground:
Clouds of vertical development
Extend upwards for many kilometers:
Other types of clouds
Under certain conditions that form on the ground, rare types of clouds are observed:
- Silvery(mesospheric). Appear at a distance of about 80 km from the planet. They are a thin translucent layer that shines against the night sky after sunset or before dawn.
The source of light is the rays of the sun behind the horizon, invisible from the ground. - Polar(pearl). Formed above 30 km above the planet. They have an iridescent iridescent color.
Observed after sunset north of the Arctic Circle. - vymeiformes(Stratocumulus mammatus). A rare form found in tropical zone. From the lower surface, processes hang down, as if from the udder of the nipple.
Such formations signal the approach of a thunderstorm. At sunset they turn golden red. - Lenticular(lenticular). They appear behind mountain peaks at a distance of up to 15 km from the surface of the planet. Stable even in strong winds.
The air flows around the mountains in waves, on the tops of the waves and these formations are observed. - Pyrocumulative(fiery). Formed during a volcanic eruption or a strong fire. The heated air rises and condenses, resulting in cumulonimbus clouds.
If a thunderstorm begins, then lightning appears more often than from an ordinary thundercloud. - Pinnate curls of Kelvin-Helmholtz. They are tubular in shape, located low above earth's surface. Formed ahead of a cold front high pressure air and high relative humidity.
When the cloud with its heated front part rushes up, it begins to twist. This type is called a "thunder collar". It exists separately from the main cloud, does not change shape when moving. - cloud hat(pyleolus). Small, horizontal formations resembling a cap of a Catholic priest.
They form above cumulus clouds when powerful rising air masses affect moist air at low altitude, causing the air to assume dew point temperature. - Offshore(speakers). They look like a horizontally set arch, they precede a thunderstorm front. Also called "squall collars", they look intimidating, they warn of a thunderstorm.
Combined with the main cloud, which is how they differ from cirrus curls. - Wavy-hilly(undulatus asperatus). Unusual formations that have appeared recently, unexplored. Foretellers associate their origin with the approach of the "end of the world."
These powerful, massive, horned or patchy clouds, reminiscent of a frozen raging sea, do not portend storms. - Wavy(undulatus). Beautiful view, formed during the instability of cirrus curls, when the air layers, in contact, move with different speed. The colder layer swims faster. The warm layer rises, cools, condenses.
The cold layer blows off the condensate, resulting in the formation of a cloud ridge. As it sinks, the condensate heats up and evaporates. The process is repeated many times. The result is a wave-shaped cloud.
Clouds can completely or partially cover the sky. The degree of sky coverage is determined on a 10-point scale.
Cloudless sky - 0 points. A third of the sky is closed - 3 points. The sky is half-covered - 5 points. Cloudy sky - 10 points.
Dreamers, scientists, naturalists and you love to look at the clouds, as well as watch them. While you might want to call that big fluffy cloud "heavy, rainy, or dark," it might be more interesting (and useful) for you to use the correct terminology if you want to understand cloud classification. First invented by the English scientist Luke Howard, the classification of clouds is divided depending on their height: low, medium or high tier, their shape: cumulus and stratus, and also based on the weather that creates them.
Steps
cloud shapes
Identify clouds by shape. There are two forms:
high clouds
- Aircraft tracks are also at this level of the earth's atmosphere.
- During sunset and dawn, high clouds become beautiful in reds, oranges and yellows.
- The glow around the moon or sun comes from feather clouds. Sometimes it can indicate rain or snow, especially when accompanied by thick, low clouds.
- Quite often, feather clouds partially obscure the sun.[]
Look for high clouds (or simply "high clouds"). They are at an altitude of approximately 5.943 meters and 12.954 meters. They include cirrus, cirrostratus and cumulus clouds. Usually they are filled with ice crystals and have a blurry outline. They are also thin and smoky.