Weather: Cloud Types

If you are frequently bored, look up!  I mean, the sky is changing every hour of the day, every minute, maybe every second...There is so much to see when we look up.  It's not "just the sky". The sky is literally different every day. 

How many different kinds of clouds are there anyway...?

Because everything that is related to science has a weird name...like science names....clouds are no different.  Once you know what the word means, it makes all the difference in the world!

Cirrus:  Horse hair

Cirrus clouds are thin, wispy and look like horse hairs in the sky.  (At least some early scientists thought that anyway...)

Stratus:  Sheet

Stratus clouds cover a large area of sky.  They look exactly like a sheet of clouds covering a large portion sky that covers all you can see.  

Cumulus:  Cotton balls

Cumulus clouds look like big, fluffy, cottony, balls of fluff.

Pretty basic.  So, what if we add other syllables to the words, for example:

Cumulonimbus:  Cumulus means like cotton balls. Nimbus means black.

Altostratus:  Stratus=sheet, alto=medium or midlevel

How about cumulocirrus:  cumulo=fluffy, cotton balls.  cirrus=horse hair like.

One more.  Altocumulus:  Alto=mid level, medium. Cumulus=fluffy, cotton balls.

There is also the weirder than ever clouds category:

Shelf cloud:  

Mammatus cloud: 

Lenticular clouds: 

Told you.  Start looking up!