
This movement produces clouds as the moist air is cooled across the entire front. Stratus clouds often form at the boundary of a warm front, where warm, moist air is forced up over cold air. Stratus clouds can blanket the entire sky in a single pattern.

Stratus clouds are horizontal and stratified, or layered. Their shape often indicates the direction the wind is blowing high in the atmosphere. Cirrus clouds usually signal clear, fair weather. They are found high in the atmosphere-typically higher than 6,000 meters (20,000 feet)-and are usually made of ice crystals.

Cirrus clouds are wispy, curly, or stringy. Clouds are classified into three main groups: cirrus, stratus, and cumulus. Types of Clouds Because certain types of clouds are associated with certain types of weather, it is possible to forecast the weather by observing and understanding these different types of clouds. With further cooling, the water or ice particles that make up the cloud can grow into bigger particles that fall to Earth as precipitation. Moist air becomes cloudy with only slight cooling. Clouds are the visible result of that squeeze of cooler, moist air. Warm air can hold more water vapor than cold air, so lowering the temperature of an air mass is like squeezing a sponge. Clouds form when air becomes saturated, or filled, with water vapor. When it’s about to rain, clouds darken because the water vapor is clumping together into raindrops, leaving larger spaces between drops of water. White is how our eyes perceive all wavelengths of sunlight mixed together. Clouds usually appear white because the tiny water droplets inside them are tightly packed, reflecting most of the sunlight that hits them. They can appear thin and wispy, or bulky and lumpy.

Clouds differ greatly in size, shape, and color. Clouds are visible accumulations of tiny water droplets or ice crystals in the Earth’s atmosphere.
