Wikipedia describes Clouds as follows:
A cloud is a visible mass of droplets or frozen crystals floating in the atmosphere above the surface of the Earth or another planetary body.
Clouds are classified into potentially hundreds of subgroups by professionals. I will let you know what I’ve understood so far.
There are two general types of clouds: layered (stratus) and piled (cumulus), the latter is the one widely recognised as “white and fluffy” and the one mostly featured here on Cloud-TV. These two types are further divided into four subgroups to indicate how high in the sky these clouds are.
To describe a particular cloud, nephrologists (= meteorologists studying clouds) mix and match word stems such as pyro-cumulus, nimbo-stratus, cumulo-nimbus and so forth.
If you ever wanted to touch a cloud or see it very close up, all you have to do is step outside when it’s foggy. As Bill Bryson says in his excellent book “A Brief History of Everything”, fog is simply made of clouds that have lost the will to fly.
Further Reading:
- The Met Office Guide to Clouds
- Wikipedia on Clouds, featuring some other stunning images
- Carl Wozniak’s brilliant Document on Clouds
- WW2010’s Guide on Clouds
- Dan’s Wild Weather Page