Clouds of the Day: Common Clouds on a Beautiful Day

Today was an ideal day. Temperatures to fell to lows near 50 degrees F while afternoon highs touched 75 degrees F. The following photos chronicle the sequence of clouds that appeared in the sky today. Most of the clouds were overhead during the morning with a clear sky during the afternoon.

All of the clouds in the photos below were in the middle levels - hence the prefix ‘alto’ in the cloud names. They were examples of typical altocumulus and altostratus. Altocumulus are ‘high cumulus’ and altostratus are ‘high stratus.’ These middle level clouds are higher than their lower cousins which are named cumulus and stratus.

Altocumulus are everywhere in this photo. Notice the different texture, density, and shapes of the altocumulus family of clouds.

This photo shows a combination of altocumulus and altostratus clouds. The altocumulus are made up of distinct cloud cells while the altostratus is layered with smooth bases.

The Sun grabs the attention in this photo which show how altocumulus usually block sunlight. We can see where the disk of the Sun is located but we cannot see the sharp edge of the Sun’s disk. The cellular shape of the altocumus are smaller on the right side of the photo and are larger on the left.

Altostratus with smooth cloud bases occupy the same sky as the altocumulus.

This close up shows both altostratus and altocumulus clouds. Can you see the difference between the cellular shape of the altocumulus and smooth bases of the altocumulus?