Clouds and Precipitation Types
Cloud Types
There are different types of clouds they are all named after Latin words. Cumulo means pile clouds, Cirro is curl , Alto is middle, Nimbus is rain, Stratus is layered, they are all different types of clouds. Some clouds have a combination of names because they have a combination of characteristics.
Precipitation
There are different types of precipitation depending on the weather. There is rain when the weather is warm, drizzle when it falls from a low stratus clouds the droplets don't have time to form into normal size droplets, hail forms in a violent thunder storm as they fall as small clusters of ice crystals as they fall they begin to onion like layers, snow is when ice crystals falls when there is a lot of water vapor, sleet is a hard round bead of ice that are rain drop size.
Warm cloud Perception
In lower latitude, in climates that are tropical warm cloud precipitation happens. There is no ice crystals just different sizes of water droplets. They stick together and fall fasters they fall in different speeds.
How Clouds are formed and when Rain comes down
Clouds form from evaporation, when water rises up and creates clouds. Most precipitation happens in clouds that are very cold they contain ice crystals and super cooled water droplets. The super cooled water droplets grow big and heavy until they fall from the clouds and they keep growing bigger and turns into rain, snow, sleet,hail, drizzle depending on the temperature.
What is Glaze
Glaze is clear ice, it is formed when drizzle or cold rain hits cold surface and freezes on contact. If the precipitation is heavy enough or last a long time, roads, trees telephone line or anything else can get covered with a thick layer of ice it can cause a lot of damage.
How does Hail form and when do you see it
Hail forms in Cumulonimbus clouds that pile up. It is formed from small clusters of ice crystals the crystals fall through areas that have super cool water and form onion like layers.
Extreme Precipitation
Some precipitation is extreme like floods and blizzards. Floods happen when precipitation downpours into warm weather and into river, lakes, ponds, and drainage ditches and they over fill with water and turn into raging currents flooding cities with water. Blizzards happens when a lot of precipitation falls into cold weather below freezing and turns into snow with wind.
What is Dew
Dew is a tiny droplet of water that does not come from clouds or fog. It is formed because water vapor near the ground condenses at night causing droplets to form on expose, cool surfaces.
How Precipitation comes
When evaporation forms clouds and clouds gets more and more water vapor in the clouds. Clouds get heavier and heavier until different forms of precipitation begin to fall they form together and becomes bigger.