Cloud Atlas

Names for Water in Air

01 · Ice threads

Cirrus

High ice threads the wind into pale hooks and drawn-out tails. These clouds do not rain on us; they warn of moisture arriving from far aloft, drawn thin where the air is cold enough to freeze every droplet into silk.

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Cloud AtlasNames for Water in Air

02 · Fair-weather heap

Cumulus

Fair-weather heaps grow where sun-warmed air rises in quiet bubbles and condenses along a flat, level base. Their cauliflower tops mark the true height of the day's lift, bright and dry until the towers gather enough moisture to make rain.

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Cloud AtlasNames for Water in Air

03 · Lowered ceiling

Stratus

A low gray sheet lowers the whole ceiling until the horizon disappears into wool. The brighter lip along its underside is only thinner vapor, not a true break; drizzle may sift out steadily without thunder or any named sharp edge.

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Cloud AtlasNames for Water in Air

04 · Mackerel sky

Altocumulus

Mid-level lenses pack into a warm dusk mackerel sky, each small cloud a pale ripple where a gentle wave lifted moist air just far enough to condense and then let it fall quietly clear again between the soft ordered rows.

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Cloud AtlasNames for Water in Air

05 · Anvil tower

Cumulonimbus

A single violent updraft builds a mountain of vapor with an icy anvil sheared flat by high wind. Beneath the dark base a faint slow shaft of rain marks where the cloud finally returns its borrowed water to the ground.

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