What are clouds? A cloud is a large collection of very tiny droplets of water or ice crystals. The droplets are so small and light that they can float in the air.
Cumulonimbus Clouds
Cumulonimbus (from Latin cumulus, "heaped" and nimbus, "rainstorm") is a dense, towering verticalcloud, forming from water vapor carried by powerful upward air currents. ... These clouds are capable of producing lightning and other dangerous severe weather, such as tornadoes. The cumulonimbus base may extend several miles across and occupy low to middle altitudes - formed at altitude from approximately 200 to 4,000 m (700 to 10,000 ft). Peaks typically reach to as much as 12,000 m (39,000 ft), with extreme instances as highas 21,000 m (69,000 ft) or more
This is a cumulonimbus cloud in Chicago.
Cirrus Clouds
Cirrus Clouds thin and wispy. The most common form of high-level clouds are thin and often wispycirrus clouds. Typically found at heights greater than 20,000 feet (6,000 meters), cirrus clouds are composed of ice crystals that originate from the freezing of supercooled water droplets.
Cumulus Clouds
Cumulus clouds are puffy clouds that sometimes look like pieces of floating cotton. The base of each cloud is often flat and may be only 1000 meters (3300 feet) above the ground. The top of the cloud has rounded towers. When the top of the cumulus resembles the head of a cauliflower, it is called cumulus congestus or towering cumulus. These clouds grow upward, and they can develop into a giant cumulonimbus, which is a thunderstorm cloud.
Cirrocumulus Clouds
Cirrocumulus is one of the three main genus-types of high-altitude tropospheric clouds, the other two being cirrus and cirrostratus. They usually occur at an altitude of 5 kilometres to 12 kilometres. Like lower altitude cumuliform and stratocumuliform clouds, cirrocumulus signifies convection
Altostratus Clouds
Altostratus clouds are mid-level, gray or blue-graycloud that usually covers the whole sky. The Sun or moon may shine through an altostratus cloud, but will appear watery or fuzzy. If you see altostratus clouds, a storm with continuous rain or snow might be on its way.
Altocumulus clouds
Altocumulus clouds are mid-level, grayish-white with one part darker than the other. Altocumulus clouds usually form in groups and are about one kilometer thick. Altocumulus clouds are about as wide as your thumb when you hold up your hand at arm's length. If you see altocumulus clouds on a warm, humid morning, there might be a thunderstorm by late afternoon.
Nimbostratus Clouds
A nimbostratus cloud or nimbostratus is a low, gray, often dark, amorphous, nearly uniform cloud that usually produces continuous rain, snow, or sleet and no lightning or thunder. Low clouds are primarily composed of water droplets since their bases generally lie below 6,500 feet (2,000 meters).
Stratocumulus Clouds
A stratocumuluscloud belongs to a genus-type of clouds characterized by large dark, rounded masses, usually in groups, lines, or waves, the individual elements being larger than those in altocumulus, and the whole being at a lower height, usually below 2,000 metres (6,600 ft).