Clouds are large masses of condensing water vapor. Their presence, type, and size indicate the temperature and pressure of air masses, enabling the predicion of approaching weather. The higher the clouds are, the better and more stable the weather is likely to be. Storm coulds are generally black, low, and massed in large clusters, while fair-weather clouds are high and white. Very low clouds may cover high ground with mist.

Cirrus - look like tufts of hair. They are so high and cold that the water they contain is frozen into ice crystals.

Cirrocumulus - a heaped up form of cirrus. These are clouds of icy particles which often make a pattern like fish scales. They bring unsettled weather.

Cirrostratus - a layer of cirrus clouds. They look like a transparent white veil high in the sky anad often mean that wet weather is on the way.

Cumulonimbus - are sometimes called anvil clouds. They are massive flat-topped storm clouds that stretch in a vertical column from about 6500 feet up to 49,000 feet above the ground.

Altocumulus - are a mix of ice and super cooled water. They are flattened globules of white and gray cloud and sometimes signal a thunderstorm at the end of a long hot spell.

Cumulus - puffy clouds that occur in the middle of the cloud layer. They are usually gray at the bottom but brilliant white at the top.

Stratocumulus - are probably the most common clouds. They form a low sheet of gray or white rounder clouds. The clouds can from a regular patter and look joined together, but these often break up, letting the sunshine through.

Stratus - are the lowest clouds. They form at about 1600 feet above the groud. Sometimes they are much lower and form fog over the ground.