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Cumulonimbus (from Latin cumulus 'swell' and nimbus 'cloud') is a dense, towering, vertical cloud, [1] typically forming from water vapor condensing in the lower troposphere that builds upward carried by powerful buoyant air currents.
Multi-level and vertical genus-types not limited to a single altitude level include nimbostratus, cumulonimbus, and some of the larger cumulus species. The list of cloud types groups all genera as high (cirro-, cirrus), middle (alto-), multi-level (nimbo-, cumulo-, cumulus), and low (strato-, stratus).
Cumulus arcus clouds have a gust front, [26] and cumulus tuba clouds have funnel clouds or tornadoes. [27] Cumulus pileus clouds refer to cumulus clouds that have grown so rapidly as to force the formation of pileus over the top of the cloud. [28] Cumulus velum clouds have an ice crystal veil over the growing top of the cloud. [19]
Cumulus congestus or towering cumulus clouds are a species of cumulus that can be based in the low- to middle-height ranges. They achieve considerable vertical development in areas of deep, moist convection. They are an intermediate stage between cumulus mediocris and cumulonimbus, sometimes producing rainshowers, snow, or ice pellets. [2]
Towering cumulus (species congestus), and cumulonimbus may form anywhere from near the surface to intermediate heights of around 3 kilometres. Of the vertically developed clouds, the cumulonimbus type is the tallest and can virtually span the entire troposphere from a few hundred metres above the ground up to the tropopause. [33]
Cumulonimbus calvus develops from cumulus congestus, [2] and its further development, under auspicious conditions, will result in cumulonimbus incus. This cloud consists mainly of water droplets. By definition of cumulonimbus cloud, at its top water droplets are transformed into ice crystals. But for cumulonimbus calvus, content of ice crystals ...
Convective rain and light precipitation are the result of large convective clouds, for example cumulonimbus or cumulus congestus clouds. In the initial stages of this precipitation, it generally falls as showers with a smaller area and a rapidly changing intensity.
A flammagenitus that produces lightning is actually a type of cumulonimbus, a thundercloud, and is called cumulonimbus flammagenitus. The World Meteorological Organization formerly classified flammagenitus and cumulonimbus flammagenitus respectively as cumulus (mediocris or congestus) and cumulonimbus.