You are looking at 1-20 of 71 entries
aerosol
A suspension of droplets or particles in a gas; more precisely, of particles with a maximum diameter of 1 μm (fog and mist are thus aerosols). In meteorology, the term is often used to describe the ...
anvil cloud
The common name for a cumulonimbus that has reached the capillatus stage (i.e. has undergone glaciation), particularly if it has spread out at an inversion (such as the tropopause) to become ...
arcus
From the Latin arcus (‘arch’). A cloud feature having a rolled appearance, with fragmented edges on the leading surface of cumulonimbus and occasionally cumulus. When well developed, the feature has ...
calvus
From the Latin calvus meaning ‘bald’ or ‘stripped’; a species of cumulonimbus cloud in which upper protrusions form a more amorphous mass than appears from the cumuliform outlines. See also cloud ...
capillatus
From the Latin capillatus meaning ‘with hair’, a species of cumulonimbus cloud with fibrous cirriform appearance in its upper parts. It is often associated with an anvil or other protrusion in which ...
cirriform
Clouds that consist solely of ice crystals and thus have a generally fibrous structure: cirrus, cirrostratus, and cirrocumulus. The term is also applied to the cirrus shields or plumes of ...
clear-air turbulence
(CAT)The variable pattern of up- and down-draughts, or turbulence, sometimes occurring in the absence of any cloud. It is caused by strong wind shear, especially associated with jet streams in the ...
cloud
A visible, dense mass of water droplets and/or ice crystals, suspended in the air, and generally forming when air is forced to rise: at a front, over mountains, or because of convection. Clouds ...
cloud classification
Clouds have been classified by various systems according to form, altitude, and the physical processes generating them. The World Meteorological Organization (International Cloud Atlas, 1956) ...
Cloud Climatology
A cloud climatology is a database that contains average properties of clouds within specific geographic regions and their variation with time. The combination of the need to answer questions about ...
cloud genus
(pl. genera)One of the ten fundamental cloud types: cirrus (Ci), cirrocumulus (Cc), cirrostratus (Cs), altocumulus (Ac), altostratus (As), nimbostratus (Ns), stratocumulus (Sc), stratus (St), cumulus ...
cloud type
Clouds are usually classified by height into low, middle, and high. Low clouds, which form from ground level up to about 2000 metres, include stratus, cumulus, cumulonimbus, nimbostratus, and ...
cloudburst
Term popularly applied to brief but exceptionally heavy precipitation, of shower or thunderstorm type. It occurs when cold down-draughts suppress the warm up-draughts in a cumulonimbus cloud, causing ...
cold front
Boundary between dense, cold air and the warmer air ahead of it, which the cold air tends to undercut as it advances. The gradient of the upper surface of the cold air may be steep, e.g. 1:50. Along ...
conditional instability
Atmospheric condition in which otherwise stable air, on being forced to rise (e.g. over an orographic barrier), cools at a rate less than that at which the temperature drops with height in the ...
congestus
From the Latin congestus meaning ‘piled up’, a species of cumulus cloud with deep bulging form and an upper part having a cauliflower-like appearance. See also cloud classification.
convection rain
When upward convection occurs in a parcel of moist air, the rising air will cool. Further cooling will cause condensation of the water vapour in the air, and rain may result. If the air is very ...
convective cloud
Any form of cloud that arises directly as a result of convection. Although stratiform clouds often break up into altocumulus, cirrocumulus, or stratocumulus as a result of shallow convection ...
Cumulonimbus Clouds Reference library
Encyclopedia of Climate and Weather (2 ed.)
A deeply developed cumulus cloud that produces precipitation is called a cumulonimbus cloud. A thunderstorm is a single cumulonimbus or
