A report on Cloud and Cumulonimbus cloud

Cumulonimbus calvus cloud in Monterrey, Mexico.

Partial view of a cumulonimbus cloud, possibly an arcus cloud.

Tropospheric cloud classification by altitude of occurrence: Multi-level and vertical genus-types not limited to a single altitude level include nimbostratus, cumulonimbus, and some of the larger cumulus species.

Windy evening twilight enhanced by the Sun's angle, can visually mimic a tornado resulting from orographic lift

Transformation from a mature cumulus congestus cloud to a mature cumulonimbus incus

Nimbostratus cloud producing precipitation

A clearly developed cumulonimbus fibrous-edged top capillatus

A freeze-frame of a Cumulonimbus cloud in the distance exposing a flash of lightning

Arcus cloud (shelf cloud) leading a thunderstorm

Cumulonimbus cloud over the Gulf of Mexico in Galveston, Texas

High cirrus upper-left merging into cirrostratus and some cirrocumulus upper right

A funnel cloud (tuba) over the Netherlands

Sunrise scene giving a shine to an altocumulus stratiformis perlucidus cloud (see also 'species and varieties')

Flanking line in front of a strong thunderstorm

Altostratus translucidus near top of photo merging into altostratus opacus near bottom

An overshooting top is a dome of clouds atop a cumulonimbus

Cumulus humilis clouds over Jakarta, Indonesia

Cumulonimbus calvus against sunlight with rain falling beneath it as a rain shaft.

Stratocumulus stratiformis perlucidus over Galapagos, Tortuga Bay (see also 'species and varieties')

Rain evaporating before reaching the ground (virga)

$Deep multi-level nimbostratus cloud covering the sky with a scattered layer of low stratus fractus pannus (see also 'species' and 'supplementary features' sections)$

Cumulus humilis and cumulus mediocris with stratocumulus stratiformis perlucidus in the foreground (see also 'species and varieties')

Towering vertical cumulus congestus embedded within a layer of cumulus mediocris: Higher layer of stratocumulus stratiformis perlucidus.

Progressive evolution of a single cell thunderstorm

Isolated cumulonimbus cloud over the Mojave Desert, releasing a heavy shower

Altocumulus lenticularis forming over mountains in Wyoming with lower layer of cumulus mediocris and higher layer of cirrus spissatus

Example of a castellanus cloud formation

Cumulus mediocris cloud, about to turn into a cumulus congestus

A layer of stratocumulus stratiformis perlucidus hiding the setting sun with a background layer of stratocumulus cumulogenitus resembling distant mountains.

Cirrus fibratus radiatus over ESO's La Silla Observatory

Altocumulus stratiformis duplicatus at sunrise in the California Mojave Desert, USA (higher layer orange to white; lower layer grey)

Cumulus partly spreading into stratocumulus cumulogenitus over the port of Piraeus in Greece

Cumulonimbus mother cloud dissipating into stratocumulus cumulonimbogenitus at dusk

Cirrus fibratus intortus formed into a Kármán vortex street at evening twilight

Global cloud cover, averaged over the month of October 2009. NASA composite satellite image.

Lenticular nacreous clouds over Antarctica

Joshua Passing the River Jordan with the Ark of the Covenant (1800) by Benjamin West, showing Yahweh leading the Israelites through the desert in the form of a pillar of cloud, as described in

Stratocumulus stratiformis and small castellanus made orange by the sun rising

An occurrence of cloud iridescence with altocumulus volutus and cirrocumulus stratiformis

Sunset reflecting shades of pink onto grey stratocumulus stratiformis translucidus (becoming perlucidus in the background)

Stratocumulus stratiformis perlucidus before sunset. Bangalore, India.

Late-summer rainstorm in Denmark. Nearly black color of base indicates main cloud in foreground probably cumulonimbus.

Particles in the atmosphere and the sun's angle enhance colors of stratocumulus cumulogenitus at evening twilight

$Total cloud cover fraction averaged over the years 1981-2010 from the CHELSA-BIOCLIM+ data set$

Cumulonimbus (from Latin cumulus, "heaped" and nimbus, "rainstorm") is a dense, towering vertical cloud, typically forming from water vapor condensing in the lower troposphere that builds upward carried by powerful buoyant air currents.

- Cumulonimbus cloud

The main representative cloud types for each of these forms are stratiform, cumuliform, stratocumuliform, cumulonimbiform, and cirriform.

- Cloud

8 related topics with Alpha

Arcus cloud

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A time-lapse photography of shelf cloud just before a thunderstorm in Pondicherry, Puducherry, India.

thumb|A shelf cloud over Enschede, Netherlands

A roll cloud associated with a severe thunderstorm over Racine, Wisconsin, United States

Coastal roll cloud in Punta del Este, Maldonado, Uruguay, a type known as Volutus<ref>{{cite news|last1=Sutherland|first1=Scott|title=Cloud Atlas leaps into 21st century with 12 new cloud types|url=https://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/cloud-atlas-leaps-into-21st-century-with-12-new-cloud-types/80685/|access-date=24 March 2017|work=The Weather Network|agency=Pelmorex Media|date=March 23, 2017}}</ref>

A sequence of volutus clouds at sea in the Drake Passage of the Southern Ocean

An arcus cloud is a low, horizontal cloud formation, usually appearing as an accessory cloud to a cumulonimbus.

Rain

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Liquid water in the form of droplets that have condensed from atmospheric water vapor and then become heavy enough to fall under gravity.

Rain falling on a field, in southern Estonia

Streets in Tampere, Finland watered by night rain.

The shape of rain drops depending upon their size

Rainfall distribution by month in Cairns showing the extent of the wet season at that location

Image of Atlanta, US showing temperature distribution, with blue showing cool temperatures, red warm, and hot areas appearing white.

Average surface air temperatures from 2011 to 2020 compared to the 1951–1980 average. Source: NASA

Band of thunderstorms seen on a weather radar display

Twenty-four-hour rainfall accumulation on the Val d'Irène radar in Eastern Canada. Zones without data in the east and southwest are caused by beam blocking from mountains. (Source: Environment Canada)

Example of a five-day rainfall forecast from the Hydrometeorological Prediction Center

Rainfall estimates for southern Japan and the surrounding region from July 20–27, 2009.

A rain dance being performed in Harar, Ethiopia

Rain, depicted in the 1493 Nuremberg Chronicle

Isolated towering vertical desert shower

If enough moisture and upward motion is present, precipitation falls from convective clouds (those with strong upward vertical motion) such as cumulonimbus (thunder clouds) which can organize into narrow rainbands.

How much water vapor a parcel of air can contain before it becomes saturated (100% relative humidity) and forms into a cloud (a group of visible and tiny water and ice particles suspended above the Earth's surface) depends on its temperature.

$Cumulus fractus$

Fractus cloud

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$Cumulus fractus$

$A nimbostratus cloud in the background with a stratus fractus in the middle of the upper half of the image.$

Fractus clouds (scuds) also known as Fractostratus or Fracto-Cumulus are small, ragged cloud fragments that are usually found under an ambient cloud base.

Fractonimbus exist only under precipitation clouds (such as nimbostratus, altostratus or cumulonimbus), and don't produce precipitation themselves.

Virga

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In meteorology, a virga, also called a dry storm, is an observable streak or shaft of precipitation falling from a cloud that evaporates or sublimates before reaching the ground.

This is because small particles from one cloud are blown into neighboring supersaturated air and act as nucleation particles for the next thunderhead cloud to begin forming.

Cumulus cloud

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Cumulus congestus clouds compared against a cumulonimbus cloud in the background

Cumulus clouds are clouds which have flat bases and are often described as "puffy", "cotton-like" or "fluffy" in appearance.

Cumulus clouds are often precursors of other types of clouds, such as cumulonimbus, when influenced by weather factors such as instability, moisture, and temperature gradient.

Lightning

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Naturally occurring electrostatic discharge during which two electrically charged regions, both in the atmosphere or with one on the ground, temporarily neutralize themselves, causing the instantaneous release of an average of one gigajoule of energy.

(Figure 1) The main charging area in a thunderstorm occurs in the central part of the storm where the air is moving upward rapidly (updraft) and temperatures range from -15 to -25 C.

(Figure 2) When the rising ice crystals collide with graupel, the ice crystals become positively charged and the graupel becomes negatively charged.

The upper part of the thunderstorm cloud becomes positively charged while the middle to the lower part of the thunderstorm cloud becomes negatively charged.

World map showing the frequency of lightning strikes, in flashes per km² per year (equal-area projection), from combined 1995–2003 data from the Optical Transient Detector and 1998–2003 data from the Lightning Imaging Sensor.

The 477 mile megaflash from Texas to Louisiana.

View of lightning from an airplane flying above a system.

Certain prominent structures often attract frequent lightning strikes. The CN Tower in Toronto is struck many times every summer.

A lightning strike from cloud to ground in the Mojave Desert, California

An intra-cloud flash. A lightning flash within the cloud illuminates the entire cloud.

A downward leader travels towards earth, branching as it goes.

Lightning strike caused by the connection of two leaders, positive shown in blue and negative in red

High-speed photography showing different parts of a lightning flash during the discharge process as seen in Toulouse, France.

A bolt from the blue lightning strike which appears to initiate from the clear, but the turbulent sky above the anvil cloud and drive a bolt of plasma through the cloud directly to the ground. They are commonly referred to as positive flashes, despite the fact that they are usually negative in polarity.

Anvil Crawler over Lake Wright Patman south of Redwater, Texas on the backside of a large area of rain associated with a cold-front

Gigantic jet as seen from the summit of Mauna Kea, Hawaii.

This CG was of very short duration, exhibited highly branched channels and was very bright indicating that it was staccato lightning near New Boston, Texas.

Explosive steam pressure between trunk and bark from lightning strike blew away birch bark

Strike mark on trunk of an Oklahoma black walnut

Volcanic material thrust high into the atmosphere can trigger lightning.

Lightning-induced remanent magnetization (LIRM) mapped during a magnetic field gradient survey of an archaeological site located in Wyoming, United States.

Lightning by Mikalojus Konstantinas Ciurlionis (1909)

Two lightning bolts pictured in the former coat of arms of the Yli-Ii municipality

Branching of cloud to cloud lightning, New Delhi, India.

Multiple paths of cloud-to-cloud lightning, Swifts Creek, Australia.

Intra-clouds lightning over the Baltic Sea.

Strokes of cloud-to-ground lightning strike the ocean off of Port-la-Nouvelle in southern France.

Data from space-based sensors reveal the uneven distribution of worldwide lightning strikes. Units: flashes/km2/yr.
Data obtained from April 1995 to February 2003 from NASA's Optical Transient Detector and from January 1998 to February 2003 from NASA's Lightning Imaging Sensor.

The three main kinds of lightning are distinguished by where they occur: either inside a single thundercloud (Intra-Cloud), between two different clouds (Cloud-to-Cloud), or between a cloud and the ground (Cloud-to-Ground).

Mammatus cloud

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Panorama of mammatus cloud formations in Swifts Creek, Victoria

Mammatus clouds over U.S. Air Force Academy, 2004

Mammatus clouds over New York City, 2009

Mammatus clouds in Tulsa, Oklahoma, 1973

Mammatus clouds over San Antonio, Texas, 2009

Mammatus Clouds over the Pacific Coast San Francisco

Mammatus clouds over Squaw Valley Ski Resort, Olympic Valley, California

Mammatus clouds in Milan, Italy, in July 2005 on a very hot, humid day without wind

Mammatus Clouds in San Francisco, California

Mammatus clouds forming in Minnesota in 2005

Mammatus clouds and crepuscular rays over San Francisco Bay

Aerial photo of mammatus clouds over central New South Wales, Australia,

Mammatus Clouds Over Sierras de Córdoba Mountains, Argentina

Mammatus clouds above Big Cottonwood Canyon near Salt Lake City, Utah

Mammatus clouds over Santa Catarina, Brazil, following Cyclone Catarina.

Cumulus Mammatus clouds between Hamilton and Missoula, Montana

Mammatus clouds over the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida, 2011.

Just before a large thunderstorm in Altomuenster, Bavaria, Germany

Mammatus clouds over Bingley, UK, following a thunderstorm on 2 November 2013

Mammatocumulus in Cap de Creus, Girona, Spain. Electric atmosphere. June 2014

Mammatus clouds over Austin, Texas, after the torrential Memorial Day floods of 2015.

Mammatus Clouds over Hoshiarpur May 20, 2016, Punjab, India

Mammatus Clouds observed in Norwich Norfolk, UK, 2015/05/24 just before sunset in the west moving east. Duration 17 minutes. Calm weather. No rain, 19 Celsius.

Strikingly regular mammatus clouds on June 26, 2012 in Regina, Saskatchewan, following a severe storm warning and tornado watch.

Mammatus clouds formation in Berlin Germany 2021

Mammatus clouds over Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey 2021.

thumb|center|alt=Mammatus clouds in the evening near Guthrie, Oklahoma on 2 May 2022|Mammatus clouds in the evening near Guthrie, Oklahoma on 2 May 2022

thumb|alt=Picture taken of Mammatus Clouds in Squirrel Hill (Pittsburgh) Pennsylvania on June 16th 2022 around 9:02pm.|Mammatus clouds at 9:02pm near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on June 16th 2022

thumb|Mammatus cloud in Sandefjord, Norway on July 15th 2022 around 20:43

Mammatus (also called mamma or mammatocumulus, meaning "mammary cloud") is a cellular pattern of pouches hanging underneath the base of a cloud, typically a cumulonimbus raincloud, although they may be attached to other classes of parent clouds.

Convection

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Single or multiphase fluid flow that occurs spontaneously due to the combined effects of material property heterogeneity and body forces on a fluid, most commonly density and gravity .

Thermal image of a newly lit Ghillie kettle. The plume of hot air resulting from the convection current is visible.

Idealised depiction of the global circulation on Earth

An oceanic plate is added to by upwelling (left) and consumed at a subduction zone (right).

An illustration of the structure of the Sun and a red giant star, showing their convective zones. These are the granular zones in the outer layers of these stars.

This color schlieren image reveals thermal convection originating from heat conduction from a human hand (in silhouette) to the surrounding still atmosphere.

A fluid under Rayleigh–Bénard convection: the left picture represents the thermal field and the right picture its two-dimensional Fourier transform.

Discrete convective cells in the atmosphere can be identified by clouds, with stronger convection resulting in thunderstorms.

If enough instability is present in the atmosphere, this process will continue long enough for cumulonimbus clouds to form, which support lightning and thunder.