Clouds can tell you a lot about what will be happening soon. Shape, size, color, time of day, and movement each play a vital role in determining future weather patterns. Heavy cloud cover at night will bring warmer weather the next day. The clouds insulate the earth, keeping heat in and cold out.
Predicting Weather — Cloud Cover
If the wind is from the Northeast around to the South, you can count on heavy rain in the next 24 hours. If the wind direction is from any other direction, you can count on a continued overcast for the next 24 hours, with no rain or at the worst a If the cloud cover has a slightly billowing look, you have “strato-cumulus”, clouds.
You most likely turn to your local weather report to find out what the day will be like, but looking at the Cirrocumulus. Small, rounded white puffs. Isolated or in long rows. Here are the surprising health benefits of cold Cumulonimbus. Heavy dense clouds in the form of mountains or towers. A few extra things to take a look at are more, and cumulus humilis.
We each cloud type gives us useful information about what’s happening in the atmosphere and helps us predict the upcoming weather . Some clouds are indicators that predict rain and storms approaching, while others are useful indicators of fair weather ahead. You’ll also notice that each layer includes a cumulus form and a stratus form.
Can you predict the weather by observing cloud formations?
Being able to predict the weather by observing cloud formations is a skill that is somewhat lost on us modern humans. Most of us can easily look at a cloud and see the unicorn or ice cream cones, but very few of us can look at clouds and see the approaching cold front. Fortunately, being able to predict the weather is easier than one may think.
Cumulonimbus clouds also have the greatest vertical depth of any cloud and frequently extend all the way through the lower, middle & even upper levels of the sky in a single cloud. As stated above, if you want to predict the approach of rain, it’s not enough to simply identify rain clouds in the sky.
How do we predict the weather?
To predict the weather look at: (1) the altitude clouds are forming at, and (2) the color of the clouds—as greater amounts of water accumulate in a cloud, the cloud becomes denser and darker; as water droplets aggregate they will likely fall to the ground as rain, sleet, or snow.
Observing clouds and weather. Wayfinder navigators always look for signs of weather at sunrise and sunset. This is when they try to predict the weather for the next 12 hours. One of the easiest ways to predict weather is to look at the clouds. There are many different types of clouds in the troposphere (where all weather forms).
If Cirrus clouds gradually become thicker and more pervasive, followed by gradually increasing altocumulus or altostratus clouds, you’re probably observing the approach of a weather system. More on this in the next section on how to predict rain. The two main types of clouds that produce rain are known as Nimbostratus clouds & Cumulonimbus clouds.
Why are clouds important to the water cycle?
First, they are an essential part of the water cycle. Clouds provide an important link between the rain and snow, oceans and lakes, and plants and animals. Clouds are an important part of the water cycle here on Earth. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech Secondly, clouds also have an important effect on Earth’s temperature.