Just look up at the sky - you will see clouds almost every day. Clouds of all shapes and sizes. But have you ever wondered what are they called and why there are different clouds at different times?
Sometimes they look like candy floss and you wish you could touch them and sometimes they are dark and block the sun and makes you scared. The different types of clouds shows us different weather patterns.
You have learned about the water cycle before and if evaporation takes place - the water turn into a gas and goes up into the atmosphere - the gas will cool down and it will turn back into water droplets or ice crystals (this is called condensation) and if more droplets form in the sky, they will eventually become clouds.
Clouds form at different levels in the atmosphere and depending on where it forms, it will be a different type of cloud.
There is a low, middle and high level where the clouds will form.
Clouds have different names depending on what they look like and where they form.
Meteorologists combine cloud characteristics and levels to get the ten main cloud types:
High cloud - cirrus, cirrocumulus, cirrostratus
Middle cloud - altostratus, altocumulus, nimbostratus
Low cloud - stratus, stratocumulus Vertical - cumulus, cumulonimbus
- What is a meteorologist?
- Look at the different names of the clouds given above. Find a picture of each of them and say if you have ever seen that specific type of cloud.
- Write one sentence to describe what each one of these clouds look like.
Activity for fun
After you are done with your work you are going to have some fun and do an experiment where you are going to make a cloud in a jar.
You will need the following:
- boiling water
- large jar
- some ice
- box of matches
Watch the video to see what you have to do - be careful and make sure you ask your parent's permission to do this.
