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Cumulus clouds are clouds that have flat bases and are often described as puffy, cotton-like, or fluffy in appearance. Their name derives from the Latin cumulus, meaning "heap" or "pile". [1] Cumulus clouds are low-level clouds, generally less than 2,000 m (6,600 ft) in altitude unless they are the more vertical cumulus congestus form. Cumulus ...
Cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds formed by quickly generated ground heat; including forest fires, volcanic eruptions and low level nuclear detonation. Accepted as a WMO genitus cloud with the Latin name flammagenitus , or homogenitus in the case of small cumulus formed by contained human activity.
Towering cumulonimbus clouds are typically accompanied by smaller cumulus clouds. The cumulonimbus base may extend several kilometres (miles) across, or be as small as several tens of metres (yards) across, and occupy low to upper altitudes within the troposphere - formed at altitude from approximately 200 to 4,000 m (700 to 10,000 ft).
Cumulonimbus clouds. September 19, 2023: Cumulonimbus clouds rise behind wind turbines in Big Spring, Texas. ... Develops from cumulus clouds and can reach great heights, often associated with ...
Towering vertical clouds have the greatest ability to produce intense precipitation events, but these tend to be localized unless organized along fast-moving cold fronts. Showers of moderate to heavy intensity can fall from cumulus congestus clouds. Cumulonimbus, the largest of all cloud genera, has the capacity to produce very heavy showers.
Convective rain and light precipitation are the result of large convective clouds, for example cumulonimbus or cumulus congestus clouds. In the initial stages of this precipitation, it generally falls as showers with a smaller area and a rapidly changing intensity.
Thicker clouds have a higher albedo than thinner ones. [1] [3] [6] In fact thick clouds and thin clouds will occasionally respond differently to differences in other factors such as droplet size. Clouds that tend to be thicker and have higher albedos include cumulus, stratocumulus, and cumulonimbus clouds. [3] [1]
A tornado is a dangerous rotating column of air in contact with both the surface of the Earth and the base of a cumulonimbus cloud (thundercloud), or a cumulus cloud in rare cases. Tornadoes come in many sizes but typically form a visible condensation funnel whose narrowest end reaches the earth and is surrounded by a cloud of debris and dust.