Showing posts with label Clouds. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Clouds. Show all posts

Thursday, April 2, 2015

Roll Clouds


We just learned about Shelf Clouds.

Another type of storm cloud is called a Roll Cloud.

It is a low tube shaped cloud that is usually all by itself and not connected to any other clouds.
They look like they are rolling along the sky, like a long tube.

(from: wikipedia - arcus cloud)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Pumice

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Shelf Clouds


We just learned about Cloud Étages

Some clouds only come around during big storms. One of these types of clouds is called a shelf cloud.

Usually when you see a shelf cloud, it is a low sideways wedge cloud right at the edge of a thunderstorm.
The upper part looks like a rising cloud, and the bottom part looks like a wild windy blowing storm.


(from: wikipedia - arcus cloud)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Slate

Thursday, March 19, 2015

Cloud Étages


Clouds are sometimes grouped by what is called their étage, which is really just a fancy word for how high or low a cloud is in the sky.

There are high-étage, middle-étage and low-étage.
The high étage is way up high in the sky, 10,000 to 25,000 feet up!
The low étage is 6,500 feet or below, and the middle étage is right in between.

So the clouds in the different étages are called different things, just based on how high they are in the sky.
Like the cirrocumulus clouds are high-étage, the altocumulus are middle-étage and the stratocumulus are low-étage.

(from: wikipedia - cloud)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Limestone

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Stratocumulus Clouds


We've learned about many types of clouds already, like the Altocumulus Clouds!

Another type of cloud is called the stratocumulus cloud.

Stratocumulus clouds are large dark and round, usually in groups or waves, and they are lower in the sky.

In the cold polar oceans there are many very large stratocumulus clouds.
They look very similar to altocumulus, but much larger sized groups.

(from: wikipedia - stratocumulus cloud)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Basalt

Thursday, March 5, 2015

Altocumulus Clouds


We've now learned that cirrus clouds are thin wispy stringy clouds way up high in the sky,
cumulus clouds are big and puffy, almost like cotton balls,
cumulonimbus clouds are tall mushroom shaped clouds that are seen during storms,
stratus clouds are flat hazy foggy clouds that sometimes have light rain,
nimbostratus clouds are big, hazy and dark and are a sign of rain,
cirrostratus clouds are very high up in the sky and flat and hazy,
altostratus clouds are flat and hazy and in the middle of the sky,
and cirrocumulus clouds are up like small spread out cotton balls.

Another type of cloud is called an altocumulus cloud, which looks puffy just like the other cumulus clouds, but it is larger and darker than the cirrocumulus clouds.

Just like the altostratus cloud, the altocumulus is in the middle of the sky, not very high and not very low.

(from: wikipedia - altocumulus cloud)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Marble

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Cirrocumulus cloud


We've now learned that cirrus clouds are thin wispy stringy clouds way up high in the sky,
cumulus clouds are big and puffy, almost like cotton balls,
cumulonimbus clouds are tall mushroom shaped clouds that are seen during storms,
stratus clouds are flat hazy foggy clouds that sometimes have light rain,
nimbostratus clouds are big, hazy and dark and are a sign of rain,
cirrostratus clouds are very high up in the sky and flat and hazy,
and altostratus clouds are flat and hazy and in the middle of the sky.

Another type of cloud is called a cirrocumulus cloud.
Just like cirrus clouds they are up high and spread out, and like cumulus clouds they are puffy looking, but a lot smaller cotton balls spread apart.


(from: wikipedia - cirrocumulus cloud)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Sandstone

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Altostratus cloud


We've now learned that cirrus clouds are thin wispy stringy clouds way up high in the sky,
cumulus clouds are big and puffy, almost like cotton balls,
cumulonimbus clouds are tall mushroom shaped clouds that are seen during storms,
stratus clouds are flat hazy foggy clouds that sometimes have light rain,
nimbostratus clouds are big, hazy and dark and are a sign of rain,
and cirrostratus clouds are very high up in the sky and flat and hazy.

Another type of cloud is called an altostratus cloud.
Just like stratus clouds they are flat and hazy, but they are not as high as cirrostratus clouds and not as low as stratus clouds.
They are in the middle of where stratus and cirrostratus clouds are.

(from: wikipedia - altostratus cloud)

Sometimes altostratus clouds have something called virga which is like rain or snow that never reaches the ground.
It leaves the cloud like rain, but evaporates or sublimates back to water vapor before it gets to the ground.


(from: wikipedia - virga)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Metamorphic Rock

Thursday, February 12, 2015

Cirrostratus cloud


We've now learned that cirrus clouds are thin wispy stringy clouds way up high in the sky,
cumulus clouds are big and puffy, almost like cotton balls,
cumulonimbus clouds are tall mushroom shaped clouds that are seen during storms,
stratus clouds are flat hazy foggy clouds that sometimes have light rain,
and nimbostratus clouds are big, hazy and dark and are a sign of rain.

Another type of cloud is called a cirrostratus cloud.
Just like cirrus clouds, they are very high up in the sky, and just like stratus clouds they are flat and hazy.

Since they are so high up in the sky they are usually made up of tiny ice crystals, and because of this sometimes at night they can make a halo around the moon in the night sky.

(from: wikipedia - cirrostratus cloud)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Sedimentary Rock

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Nimbostratus Cloud


We've now learned that cirrus clouds are thin wispy stringy clouds way up high in the sky,
cumulus clouds are big and puffy, almost like cotton balls,
cumulonimbus clouds are tall mushroom shaped clouds that are seen during storms,
and stratus clouds are flat hazy foggy clouds that sometimes have light rain.

Another type of cloud is called a nimbostratus cloud.
Just like a stratus cloud, it is big and hazy and not puffy like a cumulus cloud,
but like the cumulonimbus cloud it is dark and is a sign of rain.

Usually nimbostratus clouds mean it is going to be steady rain for a while, but not thunderstorms or tornadoes.

(from: wikipedia - nimbostratus cloud)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Lava Lake

Thursday, January 29, 2015

Stratus Clouds


We just learned that cumulonimbus clouds are tall mushroom shaped clouds that are sometimes seen during thunderstorms, lightning and tornadoes.

Another type of cloud is called a stratus cloud.

Stratus clouds are low in the sky, and look flat and hazy like a fog.
These clouds may cause a light drizzle of rain or snow flurries.


(from: wikipedia - stratus cloud)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Lava Fountain

Thursday, January 22, 2015

Cumulonimbus Clouds


We just learned that cirrus clouds are thin wispy stringy clouds way up high in the sky,
and cumulus clouds are big and puffy, almost like cotton balls.

Another cloud type is called a cumulonimbus cloud.
They are usually tall and mushroom shaped, and they are usually around in thunderstorms, lightning and even sometimes tornadoes.

(from: wikipedia - cumulonimbus cloud)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Mud Volcano

Thursday, January 15, 2015

Cumulus Clouds


We just learned about how cirrus clouds are thin wispy stringy clouds way up high in the sky.

Another type of cloud is called a cumulus cloud.
They are usually puffy, almost like cotton balls.

Cumulus clouds usually come from warm air that made water vaper rise up into the sky.
The water vapor cooled down and turned into water droplets for the clouds.

Sometimes cumulus clouds can turn into clouds that make rain, but the white puffy ones usually do not rain down.
Since they block the sun a little, these clouds can cause cooler temperatures.

(from: wikipedia - cumulus cloud)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Submarine Volcano

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Cirrus Clouds


We know now that water vapor in the air that rises up to collect with more water vapor and cool down is what makes clouds.

There are many different types of clouds!
One type is called a cirrus cloud..

They look like thin wispy strands like white string or hair in the sky.
Cirrus clouds are higher up in the sky than most other cloud types.

When you see cirrus clouds, it usually means that a weather front is on it's way soon.
(from: wikipedia - cirrus cloud)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Volcanic Crater

Thursday, October 9, 2014

Clouds


We just learned about a lot of fun elements like Hydrogen

Let's learn a little about Clouds!

Clouds are big puffy beautiful things floating up in the sky, making funny shapes that we can imagine are animals or faces.

If you fly up into the sky you can see up close that clouds are not something you can stand on, they are more like a misty fog that you can fly right through!

Clouds are very tiny little bits of water, either frozen like little ice chips or liquid like tiny rain drops.

Clouds are something special called an aerosol which means they are tiny little bits of liquid or solid floating around in a gas like oxygen.

(from: wikipedia - cloud)


Kid Facts - Blast from the past: Magma