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How do clouds form?
Fronts
Warm and cold fronts can also cause air to rise. Because cold air is more
dense than warm air, when two air masses of contrasting temperatures meet, the
cold air ends up below the warm air.
Along a warm front, warm air gently rises above colder air. The clouds that form are usually cirrus, cirrostratus, altostratus, or nimbostratus, and they can extend for hundreds to thousands of square kilometers.
Cold fronts have a more severe boundary between the warm and cold air. As cold air 'digs in' to an area of warm air, the warm air rises along the front and produces cumuliform clouds such as cumulus and cumulonimbus.
Next page -> convergence
Links and resources
Fronts
Warm and cold fronts can also cause air to rise. Because cold air is more
dense than warm air, when two air masses of contrasting temperatures meet, the
cold air ends up below the warm air.Along a warm front, warm air gently rises above colder air. The clouds that form are usually cirrus, cirrostratus, altostratus, or nimbostratus, and they can extend for hundreds to thousands of square kilometers.
Cold fronts have a more severe boundary between the warm and cold air. As cold air 'digs in' to an area of warm air, the warm air rises along the front and produces cumuliform clouds such as cumulus and cumulonimbus.
Next page -> convergence
Links and resources
