4-4.2 Classify clouds according to their three basic types (cumulus, cirrus, and stratus) and summarize how clouds form.
|
Clouds
Essential Questions: What are the characteristics of clouds that help to classify them and how do they help us predict weather?
Some clouds look like puffs of smoke. Others look like big cotton balls. But clouds are really masses of tiny water droplets or ice crystals. You can classify different types of clouds by their features.
How Clouds Form
Clouds form when water vapor in the air condenses. Recall that to condense means to change from a gas to a liquid. When water vapor condenses, it changes to liquid water. The process starts because warm air rises.
Warm air near Earth’s surface holds water vapor. As the warn air rises, it moves into a cooler part of the atmosphere. Cool air cannot hold as much water vapor as warm air. Some of the water vapor condenses around tiny pieces of dust in the air.
Tiny droplets of liquid water form. If the air is very cold, the water vapor forms ice crystals. Clouds are made up of billions of droplets or ice crystals, or sometimes both.
Types of Clouds
There are three main types of clouds. Each type is likely to bring a different kind of weather. Weather is the condition of the atmosphere at a certain time and place.
Stratus clouds are low sheets of gray clouds. Sometimes they look like a gray blanket covering the whole sky. When we say that a day is cloud, we most often mean that the sky is filled with status clouds. Some status clouds bring rain.
Cumulus clouds are puffy clouds that are often flat on the bottom. You see white cumulus clouds in nice weather. They are usually higher in the sky than status clouds. Cumulus clouds are often spread out, with big spaces of blue sky between them. Sometimes these clouds become big and dark. Then they bring rain, thunder, and lightning.
The highest clouds are cirrus clouds. They are wispy and look a little like feathers in the sky. Cirrus clouds form where the air is very cold, so they are made up of ice crystals. You see these thin clouds in fair weather, but rainy weather often follows in a day or two.
Not all clouds are high in the sky. Fog is a cloud that is at or near the ground. If you have been outside on a foggy day, you have been inside a cloud.
Essential Questions: What are the characteristics of clouds that help to classify them and how do they help us predict weather?
Some clouds look like puffs of smoke. Others look like big cotton balls. But clouds are really masses of tiny water droplets or ice crystals. You can classify different types of clouds by their features.
How Clouds Form
Clouds form when water vapor in the air condenses. Recall that to condense means to change from a gas to a liquid. When water vapor condenses, it changes to liquid water. The process starts because warm air rises.
Warm air near Earth’s surface holds water vapor. As the warn air rises, it moves into a cooler part of the atmosphere. Cool air cannot hold as much water vapor as warm air. Some of the water vapor condenses around tiny pieces of dust in the air.
Tiny droplets of liquid water form. If the air is very cold, the water vapor forms ice crystals. Clouds are made up of billions of droplets or ice crystals, or sometimes both.
Types of Clouds
There are three main types of clouds. Each type is likely to bring a different kind of weather. Weather is the condition of the atmosphere at a certain time and place.
Stratus clouds are low sheets of gray clouds. Sometimes they look like a gray blanket covering the whole sky. When we say that a day is cloud, we most often mean that the sky is filled with status clouds. Some status clouds bring rain.
Cumulus clouds are puffy clouds that are often flat on the bottom. You see white cumulus clouds in nice weather. They are usually higher in the sky than status clouds. Cumulus clouds are often spread out, with big spaces of blue sky between them. Sometimes these clouds become big and dark. Then they bring rain, thunder, and lightning.
The highest clouds are cirrus clouds. They are wispy and look a little like feathers in the sky. Cirrus clouds form where the air is very cold, so they are made up of ice crystals. You see these thin clouds in fair weather, but rainy weather often follows in a day or two.
Not all clouds are high in the sky. Fog is a cloud that is at or near the ground. If you have been outside on a foggy day, you have been inside a cloud.
Making a Cloud
Reread “What Causes Clouds and Precipitation?” in Weather Instruments (page 6, Delta Science Readers). Students observe a cloud form in a jar of hot water and describe the formation of a cloud. Students infer how clouds form in nature. (DOK 2)
|
Write Like a Scientist:
Draw an illustration of the activity that created a cloud in a jar. Explain how the cloud was formed in the jar. (DOK 1) |
Classifying Clouds
Students determine and classify the amount of cloud cover. Students classify clouds by shape. Students use weather symbols to describe current weather conditions and add cloud data to the class Weather Data chart. (DOK 1)
Prezi: Cloud Classification 3...2...1... Blast Off ebook Head in the Clouds Reading Passage Discovery Education Video: ● Types of Clouds Websites: ● Interactive Clouds Weekly Reader Types of Clouds Not Just Fluffy Ebsco "Diagram of Types of Clouds" |
*Students construct models of clouds with cotton balls on construction paper. Place clouds on paper as to their location in the sky. (DOK 3)
Write Like a Scientist: Draw and describe the three types of cloud cover. Explain the kinds of weather that comes with each cloud cover. (DOK 1) |