Ten Clouds
All ten cloud genera, drawn live in your browser. Pick one by the height it forms at, then change the hour, the cover and the wind.
Cumulus
From the Latin for heap.
- Abbreviation
- Cu
- Level
- Low
- Base height
- 600–2,000 m
- Made of
- Water droplets
- Weather
- Fair while the clouds stay small. If their tops keep climbing through the day, showers can follow.
How to tell
Separate heaps with sharp, bright, cauliflower tops and flat, darker bases, all at about the same height.
Easy to mix up with Stratocumulus and Cumulonimbus.
Cover is measured in oktas, eighths of the sky. The clouds drift at 20 times real speed.
Heights are for temperate latitudes, following the WMO International Cloud Atlas. Luke Howard named cirrus, cumulus and stratus in 1803.