26 Cloud Facts For Kids

1. Clouds are collection of suspended ice crystals, liquid water and/or other particles in the atmosphere.
2. Clouds form when evaporated water condenses and consolidates in the atmosphere. As a cloud becomes more saturated with water, gravity will cause it to fall to the ground in the form of precipitation. The temperature around a cloud determines what type of precipitation is created, such as rain when it’s warm and snow when it’s cold.
3. Clouds move across our planet via wind and the jet stream, moving over 100 miles per hour.
4. Clouds play an important role in the water cycle (hydrologic cycle). Clouds take evaporated water and help distribute fresh water across the planet in the form of precipitation (rain, sleet, hail, and snow).
5. Clouds can hold a lot of water; a thunderstorm cloud can hold millions of gallons of water.
6. Clouds float, but they weight a lot; a thunderstorm cloud can weight more than a million pounds.
7. Clouds are divided into four different genera groups. Those groups are low (strato- and stratus), multi-level (nimbo-, cumulo- and cumulus), middle (alto-) and high (cirro- and cirrus).
8. There are ten different clouds that make up the four different genera groups of clouds and they are stratus , stratocumulus , altocumulus, altostratus, cumulus, nimbostratus, cumulonimbus, cirrostratus, cirrocumulus, and cirrus.
9. Stratus clouds (St) are low altitude clouds found between zero and 7,000 feet above sea level.
10. Stratocumulus clouds (Sc) are low altitude clouds found between 2,000 and 7,000 feet above sea level.
11. Altocumulus clouds (Ac) are middle level altitude clouds found between 7,000 and 23,000 feet above sea level.
12. Altostratus clouds (As) are middle level altitude clouds found between 6,600 and 26,000 feet above sea level.
13. Cumulus clouds (Ci) are multi-level altitude clouds found between 1,000 and 7,000 feet above sea level
14. Nimbostratus clouds (Ns) are multi-level altitude clouds found between 2,000 and 18,000 feet above sea level
15. Cumulonimbus clouds (Cb) are multi-level altitude clouds found between 2,000 and 52,000 feet above sea level.
16. Cirrostratus clouds (Cs) are high altitude clouds found between 20,000 and 43,000 feet above sea level.
17. Cirrocumulus clouds (Cc) are high altitude clouds found between 16,000 and 49,000 feet above sea level.
18. Cirrus clouds (Ci) are high altitude clouds found between 13,000 to 66,000 feet above sea level.
19. Severe weather is usually caused by cumulonimbus clouds, and they can produce heavy rain, lightning, thunder, flooding, and tornadoes.
20. Cloudy days with little to no sunlight with no precipitation are caused by stratus clouds.
21. Optical phenomenon, such as halos and sun dogs, are created by cirrus clouds.
22. If you’ve ever looked in the sky and saw a cloud that was the shape of an object or animal, it was probably a cumulus cloud.
23. A common myth is the sound of thunder is produced by clouds crashing into each other. That’s incorrect, lightning causes the sound of thunder by super heating the air around it.
24. Airplane exhaust can create cloud streaks in the sky known as contrails and vapor trails.
25. The professional study of clouds is called Nephology and is a branch of meteorology.
26. The recreational study of clouds and finding shapes is called cloud watching or cloud spotting.

Cloud Pictures

If a picture is worth a thousand words, then the below images will be helpful for your research on blizzards. Below are six pictures of people in a blizzard and blizzard conditions. These pictures should help you better understand the power of this severe winter storm.

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