Clouds and Precipitation:
Stratus Clouds: blanket-like, straight, cover the sky, create overcast weather
Cumulus Clouds: puffy, white, cotton ball looking clouds
Cirrus Clouds: thin, wispy, feather-like clouds, high in the atmosphere and made of
ice crystals
Fog: a cloud a ground level
Nimbo/Nimbus: a cloud with rain or snow
Cumulonimbus: very tall, vertical cloud that is dark gray or black that is full of rain or
snow, thunderstorm cloud with heavy rain or snow that lasts a short amount of time
Nimbostratus: a blanket-like gray/black cloud that hold rain or snow, light and drizzly
rain that could last days
Precipitation: any for of water particles that falls from the atmosphere (clouds) to the
ground
Rain: liquid state of matter, falls through temperatures higher than 32 degrees
Sleet: solid state of matter, rain that falls through freezing (less than 32 degrees)
temperatures
Snow: solid state of matter, starts as an ice crystal and needs ground that is cold to
stick
Hail: only formed in cumulonimbus clouds, rain that is pushed upward from updrafts
cause it to reach high altitudes where the rain freezes, it then becomes a solid that
falls back down through the cloud collecting more rain, it will continue to freeze
over and over again (layered like a jawbreaker) until gravity pulls it down to earth,
the different sizes show you how many updrafts carried it up
Cloud Cover: symbols used to show what the skies look like on a daily basis
Clear: no clouds in the sky
Overcast: clouds everywhere in the sky
Scattered Clouds: a few clouds here and there
Party Cloudy: half cloudy, half clear
Mostly Cloudy: most of the sky is covered with clouds
Stratus Clouds: blanket-like, straight, cover the sky, create overcast weather
Cumulus Clouds: puffy, white, cotton ball looking clouds
Cirrus Clouds: thin, wispy, feather-like clouds, high in the atmosphere and made of
ice crystals
Fog: a cloud a ground level
Nimbo/Nimbus: a cloud with rain or snow
Cumulonimbus: very tall, vertical cloud that is dark gray or black that is full of rain or
snow, thunderstorm cloud with heavy rain or snow that lasts a short amount of time
Nimbostratus: a blanket-like gray/black cloud that hold rain or snow, light and drizzly
rain that could last days
Precipitation: any for of water particles that falls from the atmosphere (clouds) to the
ground
Rain: liquid state of matter, falls through temperatures higher than 32 degrees
Sleet: solid state of matter, rain that falls through freezing (less than 32 degrees)
temperatures
Snow: solid state of matter, starts as an ice crystal and needs ground that is cold to
stick
Hail: only formed in cumulonimbus clouds, rain that is pushed upward from updrafts
cause it to reach high altitudes where the rain freezes, it then becomes a solid that
falls back down through the cloud collecting more rain, it will continue to freeze
over and over again (layered like a jawbreaker) until gravity pulls it down to earth,
the different sizes show you how many updrafts carried it up
Cloud Cover: symbols used to show what the skies look like on a daily basis
Clear: no clouds in the sky
Overcast: clouds everywhere in the sky
Scattered Clouds: a few clouds here and there
Party Cloudy: half cloudy, half clear
Mostly Cloudy: most of the sky is covered with clouds