10 interesting facts about clouds
- There are 10 basic clouds classified according to their height and appearance.
- The biggest clouds are cumulonimbus, climbing up to 9.7 kilometers (6 miles) high and holding up to half a million tons of water.
- The essentials of the modern nomenclature system for clouds were proposed by Luke Howard, a British manufacturing chemist and an amateur meteorologist with broad interests in science.
- Clouds are formed of water that has evaporated from rivers, lakes, oceans …..
- The planet Saturn has some clouds composed of droplets of liquid methane.
- Clouds develop vertically or horizontally.
- Cirrus Clouds form only at high altitudes, about 7 km above the earth’s surface.
- Dark gray clouds that produces rain is called nimbostratus cloud, the name of this cloud comes from the latin word “Nimbo” meaning rain.
- Precipitation is formed when cloud droplets or crystals grow too heavy to remain suspended in the atmosphere, and they fall to Earth’s surface.
- Altostratus clouds form when a large lifted air mass is condensed, usually from a frontal system, and can bring rain or snow.
