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Cirrocumulus is one of the three main genus types of high-altitude tropospheric clouds, the other two being cirrus and cirrostratus. [3] They usually occur at an altitude of 5 to 12 km (16,000 to 39,000 ft), however they can occur as low as 10,000 ft (3.0 km) in the arctic and weather reporting standards such as the Canadian MANOBS suggests heights of 29,000 ft (8.8 km) in summer and 26,000 ft ...
Cirrocumulus appears almost exclusively with cirrus some way ahead of a warm front and is a reliable forecaster that the weather is about to change. [4] When these high clouds progressively invade the sky and the barometric pressure begins to fall, precipitation associated with the disturbance is likely about 6 to 12 hours away.
Clouds of the genus nimbostratus tend to bring constant precipitation and low visibility. This cloud type normally forms above 2 kilometres (6,600 ft) [10] from altostratus cloud but tends to thicken into the lower levels during the occurrence of precipitation. The top of a nimbostratus deck is usually in the middle level of the troposphere.
These clouds do not last long, and they tend to change into cirrus because as the water vapor continues to deposit on the ice crystals, they eventually begin to fall, destroying the upward convection. The cloud then dissipates into cirrus. [75] Cirrocumulus clouds come in four species: stratiformis, lenticularis, castellanus, and floccus. [72]
Cirrocumulus are, like other members of the cumuliform and stratocumuliform categories, formed via convective processes. [39] Significant growth of these patches indicates high-altitude instability and can signal the approach of poorer weather. [40] [41] The ice crystals in the bottoms of cirrocumulus clouds tend to be in the form of hexagonal ...
Optical phenomena, such as sun dogs and halos, can be produced by light interacting with ice crystals in cirrus clouds. There are two other high-level cirrus-like clouds called cirrostratus and cirrocumulus. Cirrostratus looks like a sheet of cloud, whereas cirrocumulus looks like a pattern of small cloud tufts.
Cirrocumulus castellanus is an indicator of atmospheric instability at the level of the cloud. [4] The clouds form when condensation occurs in the base cloud, causing latent heating to occur. This causes air to rise from the base cloud, and if the air ascends into conditionally unstable air, cirrocumulus castellanus will form. [5]
Cirrocumulus stratiformis is a type of cirrocumulus cloud. The name cirrocumulus stratiformis is derived from Latin, meaning "stretched out". [2] Cirrocumulus stratiformis occurs as very small cirrocumulus clouds that cover a large part of the sky. This type of cloud always occurs in thin layers. [3]