Weather type 1 - Clouds

There are four basic types of clouds. High clouds, middle clouds, low clouds, and clouds
with vertical developement. There are also clouds that don't fall into any of these
groups. Low clouds are from the surface to about 6,500 feet and are usually composed
of water droplets unless temperatures are several degrees below freezing. Clouds on
the ground are called fog. Middle clouds range from about 6,500 feet to about 20,0000
feet. They are also mostly composted of water droplets unless temperatures are cold.
High clouds are above 20,000 feet and are composed of ice crystals.

Weather type 2 - Dust Storm

Dust storms are created by winds moving across an arid region. Many times a strong
dry cold front is the mechanism that creates the dust or sand storm. As strong winds
move across an arid landscape, sand or dirt is picked up from the ground. Sometimes
the lighter dust particles can be lifted up to 20,000 feet high into the atmosphere. A
classic example of this is a sand and dust storm that develops over the Sahara desert.
Easterly winds may carry the dust particles across the Atlantic ocean to the Caribbean
Islands or Florida. Severe sand and dust storms can obscure visibility to zero and last
for days.

Weather type 3 - Fog

Fog is a stratus cloud on the ground. There are several types of fog. Advection fog is
produced by a hortizontal motion of warm moist air over colder ground. An example of
this would be a warm front moving across land with a recent snow or cold weather.
Radiation fog is produced as heat from the earth surface is radiated back to space at
night. A moist layer and nearly calm winds need to be present. Wind can mix in dryer air
aloft, keeping the air below the saturation point. Steam fog forms when cold air moves
over relatively warm water. This can be observed as wisps of "steam" rising from lakes,
rivers or oceans when a cold air mass moves in. Upslope fog occurs as air is pushed up
a mountainside and becomes saturated so that condensation occurs.

Weather type 4 - Freezing Rain / Ice

Freezing rain - known as "ice" occurs when a thin layer of freezing or below freezing air
exists near the earth's surface. Typically this occurs when snow falls into warmer air
changing the precipitation into rain. If a very thin layer of freezing air is present near the
ground the rain will freeze on objects such as power lines, trees, and cars. Ice
accumulations begin to cause serious problems when the ice is 1/2" or greater on
objects.

Weather type 5 - Hail

The exact processes that creates hail are still being studied. Traditionally, textbooks
showed hailstones being formed as a water droplet was carried aloft with an updaft into
subfreezing air and freezing. As the ice moved into a downdraft, more water coated the
hailstone. The cycle continued with the hailstone continuing to grow with each ride up
and down the updraft and downdraft.

More recent studies suggest that super cooled water droplets are carried aloft by strong
updrafts in thunderstorms. A small ice particle forms and grows as "waves" of
supercooled water droplets continue to bump into the ice particle. A new coat of ice
grows with each cycle. The hailstone is kept aloft by the strong updraft. The stronger the
updraft the greater the force to keep the heavier hailstones aloft. The hailstone
eventually falls to the grown when the the weight is too great for it to remain aloft or
when it gets pushed out of the updraft. Sometimes hailstones bump into each other
while being bombarded with supercooler water droplets and stick together giving the
hailstone a spiked appearance.
The largest known hailstone fell on June 23, 2003 in Aurora, Nebraska and had a
diameter of seven inches and weighed almost one pound. The heaviest hailstone fell in
Coffeeville, Kansas on September 3, 1970 and weighed 1.7 pounds. Hail is considered
severe when the diameter reaches one inch or quarter size.

Weather type 6 - Hurricane

Check out our complete library on hurricanes on our hurricane school page. We also
have hurricane tracking charts so that you can follow the path of hurricanes. Check out
just about anything you want to know about hurricanes on the hurricane library tab at
the top menu

Weather type 7 - Lightning

Lightning is simply a discharge of electricity in the atmosphere. For a complete look at this
interesting phenomenon, check the facts about lightning page.

Weather type 8 - Rain

Rain is precipitation in liquid form. Liquid precipitation can occur as mist, drizzle, or rain. Droplet
size differentiates the type that it is classified. Mist is generally 50-500 microns in size. Drizzle is
.5 to 2 millimeters in size and rain is 2 millimeters to 1 centimenter in size. Rain is formed when
condensation of water vapor occurs condenses into water droplets.
Precipitation in the form of rain can be created in a number of different ways. First, two types of
processes cause minute droplets to form rain drops. Collision coalescence is a process where
tiny droplets gradually grow in size by bumping into each other and growing. This is mostly a
warm cloud process where temperatures are above freezing. The second process is a cold
cloud process where super cooled water droplets freeze on ice nuclei. These ice nuclei grow
into ice crystals. The snowflakes fall and turn into rain drops as the temperatures go above
freezing closet to the ground. This is the primary process that produces rainfall.
Lifting to produce rainfall occurs in a number of differnt ways. 1. A low pressure system and
associated fronts 2. Mountains or higher terrain 3. Atmospheric convection

Weather type 10 - Snow

Snow is the accumulation of crystal snowflakes. Snowflakes are made as water ice crystalizes.
The crystals may form in many different shapes dictated by the water content and temperature
in the cloud as the snowflakes are forming. Snowflakes can take the shape of columns,

dendrites, plates, needles and other six sided shapes. It is possible for it to snow several
degrees above freezing if the air aloft is very cold and the above freezing layer is shallow near
the ground.

Weather type 11 - Sun

Sunny weather or clear skies is defined as less than 1/8 sky cloud cover. Mostly sunny skies is
characterized by 1/8 - 2/8 sky cloud cover. Sunny skies many times are observed when a high
pressure area is dominating the weather pattern. High pressure signifies a region of sinking air
which tends to dry out the atmosphere resulting in less mositure to form clouds. Deserts are
locations with sunny or mostly sunny skies due to high pressure systems influencing the
weather pattern much of the year.

Weather type 12 - Thunderstorm

Thunderstorms are cumulonimbus clouds that produce thunder and lightning

Weather type 13 - Tornado

A tornado is a violently rotating column of air usually produced by severe thunderstorms

Weather type 14 - Wind

Wind is air in motion in the atmosphere. Windy weather is caused by an imbalance of heating in
the atmosphere. It can be caused from an imbalance from solar heating or a difference over a
boundary such as a front. The uneven heating generates an unbalanced pressure field. Air from
a high pressure area flows toward a region of low pressure to balance the pressure field. A wind
vane points to the direction from where the wind is blowing from and an anemometer measures
how fast the wind is blowing.