What Are Clouds?

Sadly, clouds are not made up of candy floss or cotton wool and unfortunately you can’t bounce on them!

Clouds are actually made up of tiny droplets of water.

In the highest clouds, these tiny droplets change to ice crystals.

What Clouds Tell UsDifferent types of clouds tell us different things about the weather.

We are going to look at the following categories:• Cirrus• Cumulus• Stratus• Nimbus

CirrusCirrus clouds are the highest form of cloud. They look like paint brush strokes across the sky. They are made up of ice crystals and are above 5000 metres. They are normally white and predict pleasant weather.

Photo courtesy of linznix (@flickr.com) - granted under creative commons licence – attribution

CumulusCumulus literally means a heap or pile. Cumulus clouds are known as fair-weather clouds. They are fluffy and tend to be seen on a sunny day. Most forms of cumulus clouds will not produce any rain or snow. Larger forms can produce some rain showers but these tend not to be heavy.

Photo courtesy of Tez Goodyer (@flickr.com) - granted under creative commons licence – attribution

StratusThese are the most common form of clouds in Britain. They are low layers of clouds and tend to act as a block to the sun. They are found up to 2000 metres from the ground. They can be any shade from white to dark grey. They often mean rain!

Photo courtesy of whatStefanSees (@flickr.com) - granted under creative commons licence – attribution

NimbusNimbus is a word which can be added to the other types of clouds e.g. cumulonimbus. Nimbus are clouds which bring us snow and rain.

Photo courtesy of katerha (@flickr.com) - granted under creative commons licence – attribution

CumulonimbusCumulonimbus are storm clouds. They can reach enormous sizes. The rain they produce comes suddenly and dramatically. They can also produce snow or hailstones and cause thunder and lightning storms. In other countries, they can even cause tornadoes.

Photo courtesy of berniedup (@flickr.com) - granted under creative commons licence – attribution

Quiz1. Which type of cloud is the lowest lying?

2. What is name of the highest type of cloud?

3. Which type of cloud means there is a storm coming?

4. What are clouds made up of?

5. What do cirrus clouds look like?

Quiz - Answers1. Which type of cloud is the lowest lying?

• Stratus2. What is name of the highest type of cloud?

• Cirrus3. Which type of cloud means there is a storm coming?

• Cumulonimbus4. What are clouds made up of?

• Clouds are made up of tiny droplets of water. In the higher forms of clouds the drops can change to ice crystals.

5. What do cirrus clouds look like? • They look like paint brush strokes in the sky.