Clouds are a fascinating part of weather and nature. They can be beautiful, non-existent, brooding, and even scary. Clouds have so many different type of patterns and types that someone could take a class just on clouds. Understanding clouds can be an interesting conversation piece to know and for future knowledge for weather information.
The definition of clouds is “a visible collection of particles of water or ice suspended in the air, usually at an elevation above the earth’s surface” (cloud). There are many other definitions because a cloud can mean many things like “any similar mass, especially of smoke or dust” (cloud). We are focusing on the first definition.
There are many types of clouds based on their elevation and formation. “The highest clouds in the atmosphere are cirrocumulus, cirrus, and cirrostratus. Cumulonimbus clouds can also grow to be very high. Mid-level clouds include altocumulus and altostratus. The lowest clouds in the atmosphere are stratus, cumulus, and stratocumulus” (Cloud Types).
You can almost always tell what type of clouds you are looking at based on their characteristics. For example, “[c]irrocumulus clouds are small rounded puffs that usually appear in long rows high in the sky” and are smaller than your littlest finger when holding it up to compare and are also said to “look like the scales of a fish” making it be called “a mackerel sky” (Cloud types).
Another example is cumulus clouds. They are seen in the Midwest very often. “They are puffy white or light gray clouds 
that look like floating cotton balls. Cumulus clouds have sharp outlines and a flat base at a height of 1000m” (Cloud types).
One of the most important characteristic is their height. High clouds have an altitude above 20,000 feet and are made from ice crystals and have temperatures below freezing. Middle clouds are around 6,000 and 20,000 feet from the ground and resemble “a smooth gray sheet across the sky” (Rao). Low clouds are 6,000 feet or lower. They “appear as smooth, even sheets; light rain and drizzle often fall from them” (Rao).
How they form is another key factor. “Put simple, clouds develop out of the process of changing moisture from a gas to liquid” (Rao). The main process is convection. “As solar radiation heats the ground and the air immediately above it, the warm air becomes lighter and the flow of air carries this warm air upward. As the air rises, the temperature decreases and so does the amount of water vapor that the air can hold… all types of clouds and precipitation are due to rising air” (Rao).
The most interesting part of all this is the amazing formations that clouds can hold. A few examples are roll clouds, shelf clouds, and noctilucent clouds. Roll clouds are usually seen as “low, horizontal, tube-shaped, and relatively rare type of arcus cloud; A shelf cloud is a low, horizontal, wedge-shaped arcus cloud. A shelf cloud is attached to the base of the parent cloud, which is usually a thunderstorm; Night clouds or noctilucent clouds are tenuous cloud-like phenomena that are the “ragged edge” of much brighter and pervasive polar cloud layer called polar mesospheric clouds in the upper atmosphere, visible in a deep twilight” (Weird-World).
In conclusion, clouds are amazing natural happenings that are right above us. The diverse types are based on their height and characteristics. Now that you know what they are and what to look for in certain scenes of the sky, you can spot them easier.
References
“Cloud.” Dictionary.com, Dictionary.com, www.dictionary.com/browse/cloud.
“Cloud Types.” Cloud Types | UCAR Center for Science Education, 2017, scied.ucar.edu/webweather/clouds/cloud-types.
Rao, Joe. “Types of Clouds.” LiveScience, Purch, 8 May 2013, www.livescience.com/29436-clouds.html.
Weird-World. “Top 5 Scary Rare Real Weird Cloud Formation.” Weirdworld, 21 Nov. 2014, wiredweirdworld.wordpress.com/2014/11/22/top-5-scary-rare-weird-cloud-formation/.
