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What are two ways clouds get their names?

3 min read

Asked by: Sugey Banacowski

Clouds are given different names based on their shape and their height in the sky. Some clouds are puffy like cotton while others are grey and uniform. Some clouds are near the ground, while others are near the top of the troposphere.

What are the two ways clouds are named?

Another way clouds are named is by their shape. Cirrus clouds are high clouds. They look like feathers. Cumulus clouds are middle clouds.

How are clouds named?

Most of our names for clouds come from Latin and are usually a combination of the following prefixes and suffixes: Stratus/strato: flat/layered and smooth. Cumulus/cumulo: heaped up/puffy, like cauliflower. Cirrus/cirro: high up/wispy.

What are the two types of cloud formation?

There are essentially two kinds of clouds, layered clouds and convective clouds. Layered clouds are clouds that appear high in the sky. Convective clouds are the kind that are closer to the earth.

What are the names of the 2 types of clouds that make precipitation?

Clouds that produce rain and snow fall into this category. (“Nimbus” comes from the Latin word for “rain.”) Two examples are the nimbostratus or cumulonimbus clouds. Nimbostratus clouds bring continuous precipitation that can last for many hours. These low-level clouds are full of moisture.

Do clouds have names?

Well, clouds have names, too! Some cloud names are cirrus, cumulus, and stratus. Explain to your students the use of the words “names” and “groups” here. “Names” can be for individual things or for groups of things (e.g., a cirrus cloud may be one individual cloud or it may refer to that group of cloud types.

How many types of clouds are there and what are their names?

The foundation consists of 10 major cloud types. In addition to cirrus, stratus, cumulus, and nimbus clouds, there are cirrostratus, cirrocumulus, altostratus, altocumulus, stratocumulus, nimbostratus, and cumulonimbus clouds.

How do you identify clouds?

How to Identify Cloud Types

  1. Stratus clouds are uniform grayish clouds that often cover the sky. Usually no precipitation falls from stratus clouds, but they may drizzle. …
  2. Cirrus clouds are thin, wispy clouds blown by high winds into long streamers. …
  3. Cumulus clouds are puffy and can look like floating cotton.


What are types of clouds?

Thus, the 10 types are: Low-level clouds (cumulus, stratus, stratocumulus) that lie below 6,500 feet (1,981 m) Middle clouds (altocumulus, nimbostratus, altostratus) that form between 6,500 and 20,000 feet (1981–6,096 m) High-level clouds (cirrus, cirrocumulus, cirrostratus) that form above 20,000 feet (6,096 m)

How do you remember the types of clouds?

There are two things to remember here: layered vs heaped (i.e. stratus vs cumulus), and also the cloud’s altitude. When you mix these two concepts together, you can piece together the ten basic types of cloud.

What are the 3 main cloud types?

While clouds appear in infinite shapes and sizes they fall into some basic forms. From his Essay of the Modifications of Clouds (1803) Luke Howard divided clouds into three categories; cirrus, cumulus and stratus. The Latin word ‘cirro’ means curl of hair.

How do you identify clouds for kids?

There are five basic types of clouds cirrus stratus stratocumulus cumulus and cumulonimbus cirrus clouds are high and thin because the air is so cold at high altitudes.