Clouds

Clouds:
• Tiny water droplets/ice crystals suspended in air.

• This rise of air is facilitated by convection, mountains/terrain or cyclone/front formation, the air gets adiabatically cooled to its dew point and the excess vapour gets condensed to form clouds.
• dust or salt particles ‐ provides condensation nuclei for the formation of droplets.  The water droplets in the cloud may eventually fall down to Earth as precipitation.
Weather forecasting using clouds:
• Forecasting weather is a complex task –many variables like the wind velocity, air‐pressure trends, cloud type
• The direction in which clouds are moving may indicate the direction of approaching storm
• The shape, size and colour of clouds can be used to ascertain their type and infer more about the weather. 
Cirrus clouds: 
• form very high up and are mostly made up of ice crystals
• Their appearance indicates a fair weather. 
• If Cirrus filled sky darkens and turns to Cirrostratus (which forms a halo around the sun) it is a sign of rain or snow, depending on temperature.
Cumulus clouds: 
• fluffy mounds of white cotton in a blue sky
• formed due to convection on warm summer days. Nearly horizontal bases and flattened tops and may cause occasional brief shower.
Stratus clouds: 
• low, gray clouds and may indicate cold, misty rain or snow. Sometimes reach the ground and form fog. Cumulonimbus clouds: 
• huge towering clouds with dark bottoms capable of producing wind, rain, lightening, hail and tornadoes.