Cumuliform: Clouds composed of water droplets that exhibit vertical development. The density of the droplets often blocks sunlight, casting shadows on the earth's surface. With increasing vertical height, they are often associated with convection. Bases of these clouds are generally no more than 3,000 feet above the ground, but they can develop past the troposphere in both temperate and tropical latitudes. They are classified as low clouds and include all varieties of cumulus and cumulonimbus. The opposite in type are the horizontal development of stratiform clouds.

 

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Cumuliform: Clouds composed of water droplets that exhibit vertical development. The density of the droplets often blocks sunlight, casting shadows on the earth's surface. With increasing vertical heigh . . . View Full Definition

Stratiform: Clouds composed of water droplets that exhibit no or have very little vertical development. The density of the droplets often blocks sunlight, casting shadows on the earth's surface. Bases o . . . View Full Definition

Snow: Frozen precipitation in the form of white or translucent ice crystals in complex branched hexagonal form. It most often falls from stratiform clouds, but can fall as snow showers from cumuli . . . View Full Definition

Low Clouds: A term used to signify clouds with bases below 6,000 feet and are of a stratiform or a cumuliform variety. Stratiform clouds include stratus and stratocumulus. Cumuliform clouds include cumu . . . View Full Definition