Sunny
Photo uplifted from: Lovin Dublin
It is described as the sun shining and
giving warmth to the land. There are
little to no presence of clouds. Cold
temperatures and wind, however, will
also be present on some areas of the
earth.
Cloudy
Photo uplifted from: VideoHive
In this weather, the clouds form up a
barrier to block the rays of the sun. At
the same time, it also traps heat from
the ground, which explains why the
heat doesn’t instantly go away during
cloudy weather.
Windy
Photo uplifted from: Times of San Diego
Majorly formed as a warm air mass
rises upward and cold air rushes in to
fill the vacuum. Wind gusts also form
as air is pushed into smaller and
smaller spaces. You can tell it’s windy
due to the tress swaying in one
direction.
Rainy/Snowy
(Left) Photo uplifted from: Taiwan News |
(Right) Photo uplifted from: Yakuma Herald
When the clouds are heavy enough,
they cannot hold the water or snow
anymore so they fall in the form of
raindrops, in the case of rain; or
snowflakes, in the case of snow.
Cirrus
Cirrus clouds, El Calafate, Argentina.
Credit: Flickr, Dimitry B.
Cirrus is one of the most common types of
clouds that can be seen at any time of the
year. They’re thin and wispy with a silky
sheen appearance.
This type of cloud is always made of ice
crystals whose degree of separation
determines how transparent the cirrus is.
Besides the filament appearance, cirrus
clouds stand out among other types of
cloud because they’re often colored in
bright yellow or red before sunrise and
after sunset, respectively. Cirrus clouds lit
up long before other clouds and fade out
much later.
Cirrocumulus
Cirrocumulus in Hong Kong. Credit:
Wikimedia Commons.
Cirrocumulus clouds are among the most
gorgeous out there. These usually form at
about 5 km above the surface with small
white fluff patterns that spread out for
miles and miles over the sky. They’re
sometimes called ‘mackerel skies’ because
they can sometimes have a grayish color
which makes the clouds look a bit like fish
scales.
Cirrocumulus clouds exhibit features from
both cumulus and cirrus clouds but should
not be confused with altocumulus clouds.
While the two can look similar,
cirrocumulus does not have shading and
some parts of altocumulus are darker than
the rest. Cirrocumulus cloud comes after
cirrus cloud during warm frontal system.
What’s worth keeping in mind about
cirrocumulus clouds is that they never
generate rainfall (but can mean cold
weather) nor do they interact with other
types of clouds to form larger cloud
structures.
Cirrostratus
Cirrostratus clouds. Credit: Pixabay,
jingoba.
Cirrostratus clouds have a sheet-like
appearance that can look like a curly
blanket covering the sky. They’re quite
translucent which makes it easy for the
sun or the moon to peer through. Their
color varies from light gray to white and
the fibrous bands can vary widely in
thickness. Purely white cirrostratus clouds
signify these have stored misture,
indicating the presence of a warm frontal
system.
Some of the best cloud pictures involve
cirrostratus clouds because the ice
crystals beautifully refract light from the
sun or moon producing a dazzling halo
effect. Cirrostratus clouds can turn into
altostratus clouds if these descend to a
lower altitude.
As a nice piece of trivia, cirrostratus clouds
almost always move in a westerly
direction. The sight of them usually means
rainfall is imminent in the next 24 hours.
Mid-level clouds
Altocumulus
Altoculumus clouds are sometimes called
‘social clouds’ because they appear in
groups. They have a grayish-white color
with some portions darker than the
others. Credit: Pixabay, MabelAmber.
Altocumulus clouds form at a lower
altitude so they’re largely made of water
droplets though they may retain ice
crystals when forming higher up. They
usually appear between lower stratus
clouds and higher cirrus clouds, and
normally precede altostratus when a
warm frontal system is advancing. When
altocumulus appears with another cloud
type at the same time, storm normally
follows. Altocumulus clouds are common
in most parts of the world.
Altocumulus clouds are quite common in
most parts of the globe. They usually grow
by convection, in most cases after damp air
rises to mix with descending dry air.
Altocumulus clouds may also form in
combination with other types of clouds
like cumulonimbus. The amount of rainfall
from altocumulus is projected from light to
moderate.
Altostratus
Altostratus clouds spelling a rainy day.
Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
Altostratus often spread over thousands of
square miles and are strongly linked to
light rain or snow. Though they’re not
capable of yielding heavy rain it’s common
for altostratus clouds to morph into
nimbostratus clouds which are packed
with moisture and can deliver a pounding.
They’re uniformly gray, smooth, and
mostly featureless which is why they’re
sometimes called ‘boring clouds’. You’ll
commonly see this types of clouds in an
advancing warm frontal system, preceding
nimbostratus clouds.
Nimbostratus
Nimbostratus — a gloomy sight. Credit:
Wikimedia Commons.
The name Nimbostratus comes from the
Latin words nimbus which means “rain”
and stratus for “spread out”. These gloomy
clouds are the heavy rain bearers out there
forming thick and dark layers of clouds
that can completely block out the sun.
Though they belong to the middle-level
category, they may sometimes descend to
lower altitudes.
Nimbostratus clouds form as a result of the
gradual accumulation of moist area over a
large area as the warm frontal system lifts
the warm and moist area higher up in the
atmosphere where it condenses. As
outlined earlier, a nimbostratus cloud can
form from other types of clouds, like a
descending altostratus. Spreading
cumulonimbus clouds may also lead to the
formation of nimbostratus.
Low-level clouds Cumulus
Stratus

Sheets
of stratus clouds. Credit: Pixabay,
Bluesnap.
Cumulus clouds are characterized by a
Stratus clouds are composed of thin layers
white, fluffy appearance. People say these
of clouds covering a large area of the sky.
resemble cauliflowers. Credit: Pixabay,
This is simply mist or fog when it forms
Hans.
close to the ground. You can easily
It’s the most recognizable out of all the
distinguish a stratus cloud by the long
types of clouds.These adorable ‘piles of
horizontal layers of cloud which have a
cotton’ form a large mass with a well-
fog-like appearance.
defined rounded edge, which explains the

The clouds form from large air masses that name ‘cumulus’ which is Latin for ‘heap’.

rise to the atmosphere and later condense. Cumulus clouds

These are pretty benign in terms of rainfall

Cumulus clouds are a sign of fair weather,
producing light showers or even light
though they may discharge rains
snow if the temperatures fall below
sometimes in form of a light shower. You
freezing. However, if enough moisture is
can find them virtually everywhere in the
retained at the ground level, the cloud can
world expected for the Polar regions.
transform into a nimbostratus. Stratus
clouds are very common all over the world
most especially in the coastal and
mountainous regions.
Cumulonimbus Stratocumulus

The
cloud that produces showers and
thunderstorms. Credit: Pixabay.
Cumulonimbus is fluffy and white like
Stratocumulus clouds are low-lying clouds
cumulus but the cloud formations are far
that have a wide horizontal structure.
larger. It’s a vertical developing type of
Credit: Pixabay, saragib
cloud whose base grows from one to up to
Stratocumulus looks like a thick white
eight kilometers, hence it’s commonly
blanket of stretched out cotton. They
called a tower cloud. For the same reason,
resemble cumulus clouds except they’re
cumulonimbus is both a low-level and
far bigger. The base is well-defined and flat
high-level type of cloud. At the low-
but the upper part of the cloud is ragged
altitude base, the cloud is mostly made of
due to convection with the cloud
water droplets but the high-altitude
itself. Depending on the thickness of the
summit is dominated by ice crystals.
cloud, a stratocumulus will have light to
The rain comes and goes with this cloud dark gray hues.
but when it does, it can come pouring.
People often think rain is imminent when
When you see a cumulonimbus, you know
they see these clouds. In reality, you’ll be
there’s a thunderstorm waiting to happen
lucky to get a light drizzle out of them.
somewhere.

Cumulonimbus clouds can be seen most

commonly during the afternoons of
summer and spring months when the
Earth’s surface releases heat.