Table of Contents
What do cirrus clouds indicate?
Cirrus clouds are usually white and predict fair to pleasant weather. By watching the movement of cirrus clouds you can tell from which direction weather is approaching. When you see cirrus clouds, it usually indicates that a change in the weather will occur within 24 hours.
Do cirrus clouds mean rain?
Only at very high altitudes or latitudes do Cirrus produce rain at ground level. But if you notice that Cirrus begins to cover more of the sky, and gets lower and thicker, this is a good indication that a warm front is approaching.
Do cirrus clouds mean snow?
Feathery cirrus clouds are the first signal to a front coming in and generally thicken to form cirrostratus clouds. Seeing cirrostratus clouds indicates that it will likely rain or snow in the next 24 hours. Oftentimes cirrostratus clouds thicken, producing altostratus, stratus or nimbostratus rain or snow clouds.
What are 3 facts about cirrus clouds?
To decide if a cloud is a cirrus cloud, look for these things: The clouds are a very vivid white color. The clouds are floating very high up in the sky. The clouds are thin, feathery, and wispy. The cloud wisps are individual and not connected to each other.
How do you pronounce cirrus clouds?
noun, plural cir·rus for 1, cir·ri [sir-ahy] for 2, 3. Meteorology.
What do cotton ball clouds mean?
Cumulus clouds are puffy white or light gray clouds that look like floating cotton balls. At this height, high winds will flatten the top of the cloud out into an anvil-like shape. Cumulonimbus clouds are associated with heavy rain, hail, lightning, and tornadoes.
What are the 10 clouds called?
The foundation consists of 10 major cloud types. In addition to cirrus, stratus, cumulus, and nimbus clouds, there are cirrostratus, cirrocumulus, altostratus, altocumulus, stratocumulus, nimbostratus, and cumulonimbus clouds.
Are cirrus clouds rare?
Cirrus clouds typically appear white or light grey. They form when water vapor undergoes deposition to ice at altitudes above 5,500 m (18,000 ft) in temperate regions and above 6,400 m (21,000 ft) in tropical ones. Cirrus cloud Precipitation cloud? None.
What are nimbus clouds?
Nimbostratus clouds are dark, grey, featureless layers of cloud, thick enough to block out the Sun. Producing persistent rain, these clouds are often associated with frontal systems provided by mid-latitude cyclones. These are probably the least picturesque of all the main cloud types.
What is the name of the clouds that bring cool dry weather?
In fact, stratus clouds can last for days and bring cool temperatures, persistent rain, drizzle, or even snow. Now on to my favorite type of cloud, cirrus clouds!Sep 3, 2020.
What is the highest cloud in the sky?
Noctilucent cloud Noctilucent clouds, or night shining clouds, are tenuous cloud-like phenomena in the upper atmosphere of Earth. They are the highest clouds in Earth’s atmosphere, located in the mesosphere at altitudes of around 76 to 85 km (249,000 to 279,000 ft).
What type of cloud is cirrus?
Cirrus clouds are wispy, feathery, and composed entirely of ice crystals. They often are the first sign of an approaching warm front or upper-level jet streak. Unlike cirrus, cirrostratus clouds form more of a widespread, veil-like layer (similar to what stratus clouds do in low levels).
What can you conclude about cirrus clouds?
What do clouds made of water droplets look like? What can you conclude about cirrus clouds from the fact that they are pure white and have fuzzy edges? they are made of ice crystals. Which clouds look the most like cotton balls?.
Where do you find cirrus clouds?
Typically found at heights greater than 20,000 feet (6,000 meters), cirrus clouds are composed of ice crystals that originate from the freezing of supercooled water droplets. Cirrus generally occur in fair weather and point in the direction of air movement at their elevation.
What is the Latin meaning for cirrus?
Cirrus. From the Latin cirrus, which means a lock of hair, a tuft of horsehair, a bird’s tuft. Cirrocumulus. From the Latin cirrus and cumulus. Cirrostratus.
What does a cirrus cloud look like?
Cirrus clouds are short, detached, hair-like clouds found at high altitudes. These delicate clouds are wispy, with a silky sheen, or look like tufts of hair. In the daytime, they are whiter than any other cloud in the sky. While the Sun is setting or rising, they may take on the colours of the sunset.
What is a synonym for cirrus?
In this page you can discover 14 synonyms, antonyms, idiomatic expressions, and related words for cirrus, like: cirrus-cloud, cirrhus, alto-cumulus, alto-stratus, cloudscape, cumulo-nimbus, mammatocumulus, threadlet, cirrocumulus, cirrostratus and altocumulus.
Which clouds are the big blankets of dull clouds?
Stratus clouds look like a huge thick grey blanket covering the sky. If they reach the ground, they become fog. Stratus clouds produce only drizzle or fine snow, if anything. The amount of moisture in the air and the difference between warm and cold air determine how thick the cloud or fog is.
What are dark GREY clouds called?
Nimbostratus: Nimbostratus clouds cover the sky in a dark gray layer. They can extend from the low and middle layers of the atmosphere and are thick enough to blot out the sun. When You’ll See It: Nimbostratus is the quintessential rain cloud.
Are mammatus clouds rare?
Mammatus clouds are rare but can extend across hundreds of miles. They are a rare sight but are most visible when the sun is low in the sky. We can see how these clouds shows their curvaceous borders highlighted by sunlight from behind – like when portrait photographers backlit their subjects for dramatic effect.
What are long skinny clouds called?
Stratus cloud often look like thin, white sheets covering the whole sky. Since they are so thin, they seldom produce much rain or snow. Sometimes, in the mountains or hills, these clouds appear to be fog.
What are very low clouds called?
Stratus clouds are diffuse, generally grey and shapeless, and very low (based less than 1,500 feet above ground). They usually form in a relatively continuous layer, and often look like a fog bank based above the surface.
What clouds bring rain?
The prefix “nimbo-” or the suffix “-nimbus” are low-level clouds that have their bases below 2,000 meters (6,500 feet) above the Earth. Clouds that produce rain and snow fall into this category. (“Nimbus” comes from the Latin word for “rain.”) Two examples are the nimbostratus or cumulonimbus clouds.
