He takes it further than understanding the science of clouds and explores the history, art, and pop culture surrounding clouds. You’ll learn about the cumulus, nimbostratus, and the striking morning glory cloud. He takes a witty and eclectic approach to this book that helps you explore these different aspects as you tour the sky alongside him. The book is illustrated with really beautiful photographs along with some line drawings that highlight some classical paintings and even some lava lamps. Whether you’re a weather watcher, an enthusiast, or just really curious, this is a fun book to explore. You’ve likely heard weather forecasters talk about “approaching cold fronts,” but what actually is a front, you might ask? However, when accompanied by other favorable atmospheric conditions, this process of surface heating can also lead to severe weather. Indeed, clouds that form during surface heating can eventually become cumulonimbus clouds that lead to isolated thunderstorms on a warm summer’s afternoon. Low Pressure One can sometimes observe along with the clouds, giving them their due if the clouds move along and permit at least intermittent use of the telescope. If the Moon provides enough illumination, you can observe the Moon and enjoy the ephemeral clouds. Usually you can see the clouds in sunlight but nighttime illumination offers appreciation of their forms and function along with, perhaps, some indulgence in astronomy. Nebulosus – A highly uniform cloud with no distinct details, cloud tufts, whisps, or other features. Nebulosus clouds often look like a fine veil over the sun and they are found in the genera stratus and cirrostratus.

However, as we’ve mentioned, lenticular clouds can look suspiciously like a spaceship in low light. As a result, some people believe that reported UFO sightings may actually be misidentified lenticular clouds. 2.3 Arcus Clouds Low-Level Clouds – These clouds form between the surface and 7,000 feet (2,000 m) above the ground. The first type of cloud classification system that you might see is one where clouds are organized based on their typical altitude in the sky.Okay, you might be wondering why we just spent some time discussing all of the layers of the Earth’s atmosphere when clouds mostly happen in the troposphere. Duplicatus – Clouds that form in two or more large, horizontal layers that blend together to create a single large structure. Found in the genera cirrus, altostratus, altocumulus, and cirrostratus. It’s believed that these clouds form as a result of a mixture of dust, water vapor, and extremely cold temperatures that all happen to make it into the mesosphere.

Like altocumulus clouds, altostratus clouds also form at the mid-level of the troposphere. As the suffix “-stratus” suggests, these clouds also form layers, like what you see with low-level stratus clouds.Now, if you’ve seen a photo of a funnel cloud, you may be asking yourself how they’re different from tornadoes. Indeed, funnel clouds and tornadoes do look a whole lot alike, and that’s because they’re (almost) the same thing. First up on our list of cloud formation methods is surface heating. To understand how this process works, we simply need to remember that every day, when the sun rises, it heats up the Earth’s surface. It’s not clear why these clouds form, but we do know that they’re somewhat common over the Great Plains in the United States. They’re also associated with thunderstorms, even if they’re not responsible for precipitation. 2.9 Pyrocumulus Cloud CC BY-SA 4.0 / JeremyaGreene / wikimedia commons Mesosphere – The mesosphere extends from the top of the stratosphere to about 53 miles (85 km) above the ground. Here, the temperatures get colder with altitude and this region is home to some of the coldest temperatures in the atmosphere. Air pressure in the mesosphere is just a fraction of what we experience on the ground.