Cirrocumulus clouds are thin, sometimes patchy, sheet-like clouds. They sometimes look like they’re full of ripples or are made of small grains. Weather prediction: Fair, but cold. However, if you live in a tropical region, these clouds could be a sign of an approaching hurricane!

puffy cumulus shape

What are cirrostratus clouds? Cirrostratus are transparent high clouds, which cover large areas of the sky. They sometimes produce white or coloured rings, spots or arcs of light around the Sun or Moon, that are known as halo phenomena.

Cirrocumulus clouds are usually seen in the winter and indicate fair, but cold weather. In tropical regions, they may indicate an approaching hurricane. Altostratus clouds are gray or blue-gray mid level clouds composed of ice crystals and water droplets.

One of the easiest ways to predict weather is to look at the clouds. There are many different types of clouds in the troposphere. Different clouds mean different types of weather. One of the easiest ways to predict weather is to look at the clouds.

How to predict the weather using clouds

1. Clouds can be used to forecast the weather ©Getty.
2. High level cirrus clouds of ice crystal patterns on deep blue sky ©Getty.
3. If you spot Cirrostratus clouds forming a warm front may be approaching ©Getty.
4. Altostratus clouds indicate that it will rain in around four hours.

When light hits the water droplets in the clouds, all of the light is scattered equally. All of the visible colors combined make white, so the cloud will appear white. However, clouds can look gray when there are more water molecules within the cloud (i.e. the cloud is thicker).

Blue

The color of a cloud depends primarily upon the color of the light it receives. The Earth’s natural source of light is the sun which provides ‘white’ light. The colors change as the wavelength increases from violet to indigo to blue, green, yellow, orange, red and deep red. …

Clouds are made of millions of these tiny liquid water droplets. The droplets scatter the colors of the sunlight equally, which makes clouds appear white. Even though they can look like cushy puffballs, a cloud can’t support your weight or hold anything up but itself.

Funnel Clouds One of the most feared and easily recognized storm clouds is the funnel cloud. Produced when a rotating column of air condenses, funnel clouds are the visible part of tornadoes that extend downward from the parent thunderstorm cloud.

Noctilucent cloud

• Noctilucent clouds, or night shining clouds, are tenuous cloud-like phenomena in the upper atmosphere of Earth.
• They are the highest clouds in Earth’s atmosphere, located in the mesosphere at altitudes of around 76 to 85 km (249,000 to 279,000 ft).

Scud clouds are cloud fragments that seem to hang much lower in the sky than the rest of the clouds and they can even form a point that makes them look just like a tornado.

Tornadoes can occur without funnel clouds, as shown in this example from NSSL. Most likely, the pressure drop and lift in the tornado vortex was too weak to cool and condense a visible funnel; and/or the air below cloud base was too dry.

As long as it doesn’t reach the ground, it remains a funnel cloud. If that funnel cloud makes contact with the ground or has a debris cloud or dust whirl beneath it, then it’s classified as a tornado, which can create damage, according to NOAA.

The “greenage” or green color in storms does not mean a tornado is coming. The green color does signify the storm is severe though. The color is from the water droplets suspended in the storm, absorbing red sunlight and radiating green frequencies.

When blue objects are illuminated with red light, Bachmeier says, they appear green. Green is significant, but not proof that a tornado is on the way. A green cloud “will only occur if the cloud is very deep, which generally only occurs in thunderstorm clouds,” Bachmeier says.

Day or night – Loud, continuous roar or rumble, which doesn’t fade in a few seconds like thunder. Night – Small, bright, blue-green to white flashes at ground level near a thunderstorm (as opposed to silvery lightning up in the clouds). These mean power lines are being snapped by very strong wind, maybe a tornado.

one to two miles

Tornadoes seem to emit sounds the human ear can’t hear. That could help scientists develop better early detection systems. Along with the roar of a grizzly bear and a crack of lightning, the sound of a tornado is among the most terrifying natural sounds on Earth.