By: Cammie Goodman
• BrainPop Video- Clouds
• Some clouds look like puffs of
smoke.
• Others look like big cotton balls.
• However, clouds are really masses of
tiny water droplets or ice crystals.
• This water may fall to Earth as rain,
snow, sleet or hail.
How Clouds Form
∙ Clouds form when water vapor in the air
condenses.
∙ To condense means to change from a gas to a
liquid, so when water vapor condenses, it changes
to liquid water.
Here’s what makes this happen.
∙ Clouds start with warm air near Earth’s surface and
this warm air rises.
∙ The warm air holds some water vapor.
∙ As the air rises, it moves into a cooler part of the
atmosphere.
∙ The atmosphere is the blanket of gases
that surrounds the Earth.
∙ Cool air cannot hold as much water
vapor as warm air.
∙ Some of the water vapor condenses around tiny
dust particles in the air.
∙ It forms tiny droplets of liquid water.
∙ If the air is very cold, the water vapor forms ice
crystals, or sometimes both.
∙ Cloud droplets form around tiny particles, such as
specks of dust or soot.
∙ The droplets cannot form without these particles.
∙ The particles are sometimes called cloud seeds.
•Nimbus: Means rain
•Cumulonimbus: means tall vertical clouds
• The first type of nimbus cloud is a cumulonimbus
cloud. Cumulonimbus clouds are known for having
intense rain and thunderstorms.
Types of Clouds
• There are many types
of clouds.
• Each type is likely to
bring different kind of
weather.
• Weather is the
condition of the
atmosphere at a
certain time and place.
Stratus clouds
∙ Stratus clouds are low sheets of gray
clouds.
∙ They spread out and look like gray
blanket covering the sky.
∙ Some stratus clouds bring rain.
Cumulus clouds
∙ Usually puffy and white
∙ You see them in nice weather
∙ They are usually higher in the sky than stratus
clouds.
∙ They are often spread out, with big spaces of blue
sky between them.
∙ They can grow tall on a hot, sunny day.
∙ Sometimes they are dark which bring rain,
lightning and thunder.
ZAP!
Cirrus Clouds
∙ The highest clouds
∙ They are wispy and look a little like feathers
in the sky.
∙ They form where the air is cold.
∙ They are made up of ice crystals.
∙ You see thin clouds in fair weather, but rainy
weather often follows in a day or two.
• At any time, clouds cover about one-half of Earth.
• Not all clouds are high in the sky.
• Fog is a cloud that is on or near the ground.
• If you have been outside on a foggy day, you have
been inside a cloud.
Precipitation
• Precipitation is the water that falls from the
atmosphere.
• The water can take the form of rain, snow, sleet or
hail.
Rain
∙ Falls in drops- cloud droplets are too
tiny to fall to Earth.
∙ For rain to fall, larger, heavier drops of
water must form in clouds.
∙ Some raindrops form when droplets
bump into each other and stick
together.
∙ It takes millions of droplets to make one
raindrop
∙ Other raindrops come from ice crystals that
form in cold clouds.
∙ As the ice crystals grow, they become heavier
and fall toward Earth.
∙ They melt into raindrops as they fall through
warmer parts of the atmosphere.
Snow
∙ Falls from cold clouds when ice crystals
stay frozen as they fall.
∙ The falling ice crystals stick together to
form snowflakes of different sizes
• Depending on the temperature, snow may be
light and powdery or heavy and wet.
Sleet
∙Frozen or partly frozen rain.
∙ Forms when raindrops fall through very
cold air near the ground.
Hail
∙Precipitation in the form of balls or
chunks of ice.
∙Dark cumulus clouds often produce
hail.
∙ Hailstones start as tiny pellets of ice inside these
clouds.
∙ The ice pellets get caught in strong up and down
movements of air called updrafts and downdrafts.
∙ The pellets collect a new layer of ice each time
they are bounced up and down.
∙ In time, they get so heavy that the updrafts
cannot hold them up.
∙ Then the hailstones fall to the ground.
∙ Most hailstones are small, but some are as
big as softballs
Discussion Question
What other form of
precipitation is sleet most like?
Lesson Review
[Link] of these must happen to form a
cloud?
[Link] vapor condensing
[Link] falling
[Link] falling
[Link] melting
2. What is fog?
[Link] precipitation
b.a cloud high in the sky.
c.A cloud on or near the ground
[Link]
3. Which kind of cloud looks like
feathers high in the sky?
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]
4. Which one forms when
raindrops freeze?
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]
[Link]
HA HA HA