Weather Basics: Identify and Understand Clouds, Precipitation, and More (Adventure Skills Guides)

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Ryan Henning was born and raised in Minnesota, where he spent most of his formative years in the Minneapolis suburb of Victoria. There, he developed a fascination with the weather―thanks largely to his dad’s career in the airline industry. (Ryan loved the radar!) After earning a degree in synoptic meteorology from Purdue University, Ryan worked as an aviation meteorologist for eight years. He runs his own website and weather blog.

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Cirrus Clouds

What They Look Like: Cirrus clouds are wispy clouds found extremely high in the sky. In fact, cirrus clouds can often be found above commercial airliners at cruising altitude.

What They Say About the Weather: Because they are so high, they rarely have much to do with the weather at the surface, and they are generally indicative of fair weather. If you are seeing cirrus clouds, either the intervening layers are so dry that clouds can’t form, or cold air is found fairly low in the atmosphere.

Cirrostratus Clouds

What They Look Like: Cirrostratus clouds are fields of clouds that are fairly wispy and at a very high altitude. Cirrostratus clouds don’t really look like clouds at all; they look more like haze. They’re easy to spot when they form a halo around the sun and, especially, the moon at night.

What They Say About the Weather: They form because of high moisture levels at the altitude (20,000 feet and higher) of cirrus clouds; this can indicate the advance of a warm front, as the cool, dense air remains at the surface with the more buoyant air hanging out aloft. Because the haziness usually precedes a warm front, the haze of cirrostratus can mean that clouds will eventually thicken, and stratus clouds at lower levels are soon to follow.