Clouds and their characteristics

Cirrus
Cirrus is a genus of high cloud made of ice crystals. Cirrus clouds typically appear delicate and
wispy with white strands. Cirrus are usually formed when warm, dry air rises, causing water
vapor deposition onto rocky or metallic dust particles at high altitudes.

Stratus
Stratus clouds are low-level clouds characterized by horizontal layering with a uniform base, as
opposed to convective or cumuliform clouds formed by rising thermals. The term stratus
describe a flat, hazy, featureless clouds at low altitudes varying in color from dark gray to nearly
white.

Cumulus
Cumulus clouds are clouds that have flat bases and are often described as puffy, cotton-like, or
fluffy in appearance. Their name derives from the Latin cumulus, meaning "heap" or "pile".

Cirrostratus
Cirrostratus is a high-altitude, very thin, generally uniform stratiform genus-type of cloud. It is
made out of ice-crystals, which are pieces of frozen water. It is difficult to detect and it can make
halos. These are made when the cloud takes the form of thin cirrostratus nebulosus.

Altocumulus
Altocumulus is a middle-altitude cloud genus that belongs mainly to the stratocumuliform
physical category characterized by globular masses or rolls in layers or patches, the individual
elements being larger and darker than those of cirrocumulus and smaller than those of
stratocumulus.
Nimbostratus
A nimbostratus cloud is a multilevel, amorphous, nearly uniform, and often dark-gray cloud that
usually produces continuous rain, snow, or sleet, but no lightning or thunder.

Stratocumulus
A stratocumulus cloud, occasionally called a cumulostratus, belongs to a genus-type of clouds
characterized by large dark, rounded masses, usually in groups, lines, or waves, the individual
elements being larger than those in altocumulus, and the whole being at a lower height, usually
below 2,000 meters.

Altostratus
Altostratus is a middle-altitude cloud genus made up of water droplets, ice crystals, or a mixture
of the two. Altostratus clouds are formed when large masses of warm, moist air rise, causing
water vapor to condense.

Cirrocumulus
Cirrocumulus is one of the three main genus types of high-altitude tropospheric clouds, the
other two being cirrus and cirrostratus. They usually occur at an altitude of 5 to 12 km. Like
lower-altitude cumuliform and strato cumuliform clouds, cirrocumulus signifies convection.

Mammatus
Mammatus clouds generally form in the most unstable cumulonimbus, meaning that there is
also a chance of hail, heavy rain and lightning in the vicinity, and if the air is cold enough during
winter they can produce snow.