Aerial term Clouds, how are they formed and how are they classified?

Weather of Arabia - The term clouds is considered one of the important weather terms, and it is complex and has many information related to this term. It is important to know how clouds are formed and what conditions must be met for them to form, and how clouds are classified in terms of their shapes and the height of their base above the ground, and what type of precipitation falls from the clouds. And other things.

What do you know about clouds?

Clouds are a form of condensation of water vapor in the atmosphere in the form of water droplets, ice crystals, or a mixture of both, at a level above ground level.

This requires several conditions to be met:

• The presence of a sufficient amount of water vapor (saturated air).
• The presence of condensation nuclei such as dust, sand, salts, and smoke, which represent the condensation surface.
• Cooling moist air to or below its dew point.

Factors that cause air to rise upward:

• The rise of air over high terrain, forming what is known as terrain clouds.
• Clouds resulting from atmospheric turbulence.
• Clouds resulting from convection currents.
• Clouds resulting from air fronts and air depressions.

Classification of clouds in terms of shape, divided into three sections:

• Feather clouds: appear in the form of noodles, silk, or threads.
• Cumulus clouds: They appear vertically and are found in unstable atmosphere.
• Stratus clouds: They appear horizontally and are usually found in a stable atmosphere.

Classification of clouds according to the height of the cloud base above the Earth's surface:

• High clouds: Their base height is more than 7 km.
• Medium clouds: Their base height ranges from 2-7 km.
• Low clouds: Their base height does not exceed approximately 2 km.

To measure the amount of clouds covering the sky, the scale is used:

• In the absence of clouds, 0/8 of the atmosphere is clear.
• Partly cloudy 4/8.
• Mostly cloudy 8/8.

Types of precipitation:

• Watery precipitation includes rain and drizzle.
• Freezing precipitation includes snow, snowballs, ice pellets, ice balls, hail and snow prisms.