Cloud is a mass of minute water droplets or tiny crystals of ice formed by the condensation of the water vapour in free air at considerable elevations.
● As the clouds are formed at some height over the surface of the earth, they take various shapes.
● According to their height, expanse, density and transparency or opaqueness clouds are grouped under four types.
● The four types of clouds are:
(i) cirrus
(ii) cumulus
(iii) stratus
(iv) nimbus
● Cirrus clouds are formed at high altitudes (8,000 – 12,000m).
● They are thin and detached clouds having a feathery appearance.
● They are always white in colour.
● Cumulus clouds look like cotton wool.
● They are generally formed at a height of 4,000- 7,000 m.
● They exist in patches and can be seen scattered here and there.
● They have a flat base.
● These are layered clouds covering large portions of the sky.
● These clouds are generally formed either due to loss of heat or the mixing of air masses with different temperatures.
● Nimbus clouds are black or dark gray.
● They form at middle levels or very near to the surface of the earth.
● These are extremely dense and opaque to the rays of the sun.
● Sometimes, the clouds are so low that they seem to touch the ground.
● Nimbus clouds are shapeless masses of thick vapour
● A combination of these four basic types can give rise to the following types of clouds:
➔ high clouds – cirrus, cirrostratus, cirrocumulus
➔ middle clouds – altostratus and altocumulus
➔ low clouds – stratocumulus and nimbostratus
➔ clouds with extensive vertical development – cumulus and cumulonimbus.
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