Clouds of the Day - Tuesday, January 12, 2021

The photos below were taken at 7:45 this morning looking southeast from Cedar Falls, Iowa. Bands of primarily cirrostratus were stretched west to east across the southeastern sky. There were also altostratus along the north edge of the cirrus band. The altostratus have small cumulus features embedded. HIgher in the sky were altocumulus.

It would be possible to classify all of the clouds as Altostratus and Altocumulus types because of their dense features but as the sun moved higher these clouds looked to be much thinner than they appear here. This is a good example of how cloud types can sometimes be hard to determine. It comes down to how high they are which is difficult to determine.

Cirrostratus with Altostratus along the top of photo

Cirrostratus with Altocumulus top right