1. Section 3: Clouds and Precipitation
Clouds vary in shape, size, height of formation, and type of precipitation. K
What I Know W
What I Want to Find Out L
What I Learned

2. Essential Questions
What is the difference between stable and unstable air?
How do low, middle, high, and vertical development clouds differ?
How does precipitation form?
Clouds and Precipitation
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3. Vocabulary Review New condensation condensation nucleus
orographic lifting
cumulus
stratus
cirrus
precipitation
coalescence
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4. Cloud Formation
As a warm air mass rises, it expands and cools adiabatically.
The cooling of an air mass as it rises can cause water vapor in the air mass to condense.
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Clouds and Precipitation

5. Cloud
A condensation nucleus is a small particle in the atmosphere around which water droplets can form.
When the number of these droplets is large enough, a cloud is visible.
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6. Cloud Formation Atmospheric stability
As an air mass rises, it cools. However, the air mass will continue to rise as long as it is warmer than the surrounding air.
When an air mass sinks back to its original position and resists rising, it is considered stable.
Clouds and Precipitation
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7. Cloud Formation Atmospheric stability
The stability of air masses determines the type of clouds that form and the associated weather patterns.
Stable air has a tendency to resist movement. Unstable air does not resist vertical displacement.
Clouds and Precipitation
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8. Cloud Formation Atmospheric stability
When the temperature of a mass of air is greater than the temperature of the surrounding air, the air mass rises. When the temperature of the surrounding air is greater than that of the air mass, it sinks.
Clouds and Precipitation
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9. Cloud Formation Atmospheric lifting
Clouds can form when moist air rises, expands, and cools enough for water vapor to condense.
Clouds can also form when air is forced upward or lifted by mechanical processes.
Clouds and Precipitation
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10. Cloud Formation Atmospheric lifting
Orographic lifting occurs when an air mass is forced to rise over a topographic barrier.
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11. Cloud Formation Atmospheric lifting
Air can be lifted by convergence, which occurs when air moves into the same area from different directions and some of the air is forced upward.
This process is even more pronounced when air masses at different temperatures collide.
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12. Types of Clouds
Clouds are generally classified by the altitudes at which they form and by their shapes.
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13. Types of Clouds Low clouds
Cumulus clouds are puffy, lumpy-looking clouds that usually occur below m.
Another type of cloud that forms at heights below 2000 m is a stratus, a layered sheetlike cloud that covers much or all of the sky in a given area.
Clouds and Precipitation
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14. Types of Clouds Middle clouds
Altocumulus and altostratus clouds form at altitudes between 2000 m and m and are made up of ice crystals and water droplets.
Clouds and Precipitation
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15. Types of Clouds High clouds
High clouds, made up of ice crystals, form at heights above 6000 m where temperatures are below freezing. Some, such as cirrus clouds, often have a wispy, indistinct appearance.
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16. Types of Clouds Vertical development clouds
If the air that makes up a cumulus cloud is unstable, the cloud will continue to grow upward through middle altitudes as a towering cumulonimbus. If conditions are right, it can reach the tropopause.
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17. Add link to BrainPOP from ConnectED here.
Clouds
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Add link to BrainPOP from ConnectED here.
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18. Precipitation
All forms of water that fall from clouds to the ground are precipitation.
Rain, snow, sleet, and hail are the four main types of precipitation.
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19. Precipitation Coalescence
Coalescence occurs when cloud droplets collide and join together to form a larger droplet.
When the droplets become too heavy to remain suspended in the cloud, they fall to Earth as precipitation.
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20. Precipitation Snow, sleet, and hail
The type of precipitation that reaches Earth depends on the vertical variation of temperature in the atmosphere.
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21. Precipitation The water cycle
Water moves from Earth to the atmosphere and back to Earth in the water cycle.
Clouds and Precipitation
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22. Review Essential Questions Vocabulary
What is the difference between stable and unstable air?
How do low, middle, high, and vertical development clouds differ?
How does precipitation form?
Vocabulary
condensation nucleus
orographic lifting
cumulus
stratus
cirrus
precipitation
coalescence
Clouds and Precipitation
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