What type of cloud is composed of ice crystals

Weather prediction: A change is on its way! Cirrostratus clouds are thin, white clouds that cover the whole sky like a veil. These clouds are most commonly seen in the winter, and can cause the appearance of a halo around the sun or the moon. Weather prediction: Rain or snow will arrive within 24 hours!

Cirrocumulus clouds are thin, sometimes patchy, sheet-like clouds. Weather prediction: Fair, but cold. However, if you live in a tropical region, these clouds could be a sign of an approaching hurricane!

Altocumulus clouds have several patchy white or gray layers, and seem to be made up of many small rows of fluffy ripples. They are lower than cirrus clouds, but still quite high. Weather prediction: Fair. Altostratus clouds are gray or blue-gray mid-level clouds composed of ice crystals and water droplets. The clouds usually cover the entire sky. Weather prediction: Be prepared for continuous rain or snow! Nimbostratus clouds are dark, gray clouds that seem to fade into falling rain or snow.

They are so thick that they often blot out the sunlight. Weather prediction: Gloomy with continuous rain or snow. Cumulus clouds look like fluffy, white cotton balls in the sky. They are beautiful in sunsets, and their varying sizes and shapes can make them fun to observe! Stratus cloud often look like thin, white sheets covering the whole sky. Heated by sunshine, the ground heats the air just above it. That warmed air starts to rise because, when warm, it is lighter and less dense than the air around it.

As it rises, its pressure and temperature drop causing water vapor to condense. Eventually, enough moisture will condense out of the air to form a cloud. Several types of clouds form in this way including cumulus, cumulonimbus, mammatus, and stratocumulus clouds. Some clouds, such as lenticular and stratus clouds, form when wind blows into the side of a mountain range or other terrain and is forced upward, higher in the atmosphere. The side of the mountains that the wind blows towards is called the windward side.

The side of the mountains where the wind blows away is called the leeward side. This can also happen without a dramatic mountain range, just when air travels over land that slopes upward and is forced to rise.

The air cools as it rises, and eventually clouds form. 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 often spread over thousands of square miles and are strongly linked to light rain or snow. 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. Stratus clouds are composed of thin layers of clouds covering a large area of the sky.

This is simply mist or fog when it forms close to the ground. You can easily distinguish a stratus cloud by the long horizontal layers of cloud which have a fog-like appearance. The clouds form from large air masses that rise to the atmosphere and later condense. These are pretty benign in terms of rainfall producing light showers or even light snow if the temperatures fall below freezing. However, if enough moisture is retained at the ground level, the cloud can transform into a nimbostratus.

Stratus clouds are very common all over the world most especially in the coastal and mountainous regions. Cumulus clouds. Cumulus clouds are a sign of fair weather, though they may discharge rains sometimes in form of a light shower.

You can find them virtually everywhere in the world expected for the Polar regions. Cumulonimbus is fluffy and white like cumulus but the cloud formations are far larger. For the same reason, cumulonimbus is both a low-level and high-level type of cloud. At the low-altitude base, the cloud is mostly made of water droplets but the high-altitude summit is dominated by ice crystals.

The rain comes and goes with this cloud but when it does, it can come pouring. Stratocumulus looks like a thick white blanket of stretched out cotton.

The base is well-defined and flat but the upper part of the cloud is ragged due to convection with the cloud itself.