Why is there so many type of clouds, if they’re made of the same thing?
In: Chemistry
Just like there’s:
Icebergs
Shaved Ice
Ice Cubes
Crushed Ice
Ice dams in rivers
Hail
etc….
It’s all just frozen water…
There aren’t. Water vapor in the atmosphere is influenced by many things like winds, temperature, pressure, landmass, ocean currents etc. Humans decided that shapes resulting from these influences are to be called different names. But they are all the same chemically, water vapor.
The types of clouds show differences in cloud altitude, density, and formation. Yes, they are all made of the same things, but you can make a cloud lots of different ways, and that’s why we can categorize them differently.
Clouds are classified according to how they look and how high the base of the cloud is in the sky. This system was suggested in 1803. There are different sorts of clouds because the air where they form can be still or moving forward or up and down at different speeds. Very thick clouds with large enough water droplets can make rain or snow, and the biggest clouds can make thunder and lightning.
There are five basic families of clouds based on how they look:
* Cirrus clouds are high and thin. The air is very cold at high levels, so these clouds are made of ice crystals instead of water droplets. Cirrus clouds are sometimes called mares’ tails because they look like the tails of a horse.
* Stratus clouds are like flat sheets. They may be low-level clouds (stratus), medium-level (altostratus), high-level (cirrostratus), or thick multi-level clouds that make rain or snow (nimbostratus).
* Stratocumulus clouds are in the form of rolls or ripples. They may be low-level clouds (stratocumulus), medium-level (altocumulus), or high-level (cirrocumulus).
* Cumulus clouds are puffly and small when they first form. They may grow into heap clouds that have moderate vertical extent (nothing added to the name), or become towering vertical clouds (towering cumulus).
* Cumulonimbus clouds are very large cumulus-type clouds that usually develop cirrus tops and sometimes other features that give them their own unique look.
Latest Answers