Description

Reeds Cloud Handbook is a quick-access, easy-to-use guide to identifying cloud types and how to predict what each cloud type can tell us about the weather and predict how it will change.

Reeds Cloud Handbook pocket reference will appeal to those who spend time outdoors and wants to better understand the weather, with its principal focus for sailors and also anyone going walking, fishing, cycling etc. This portable handbook will give you the essential information about common and unusual cloud types, how they form and what weather patterns are associated with them.

Fully illustrated with color photography and clear diagrams, this cloud identification guide includes sections on different weather patterns and how clouds form, different clouds according to where they appear in the sky, related features and different forms of fog. Each entry gives guidance on how and when to spot different cloud types and effects, and how the clouds relate to wind and rain patterns.

Table of Contents

Introduction to the weather

How to use this book

A brief introduction to the clouds

Deciphering cloud names

A bit of history

Weather systems

Air masses

Depressions

Anticyclones

High clouds

Cirrus

Thick cirrus (cirrus spissatus)

Cirrostratus

Cirrocumulus

Contrails (cirrus homogenitus)

Middle clouds

Altocumulus floccus

Altocumulus castellanus

Altocumulus sheets (altocumulus stratiformis)

Altocumulus lenticularis

Thin altostratus (altostratus translucidus)

Thick altostratus (altostratus opacus)

Lower clouds

Cumulus

Cumulus fractus

Fair weather cumulus (cumulus humilis)

Towering cumulus (cumulus congestus)

Cumulus cloud streets (cumulus radiatus)

Featureless stratus (stratus nebulosus)

Broken stratus (stratus fractus)

Stratocumulus

Stratocumulus stratiformis

Stratocumulus castellanus

Nimbostratus

Cumulonimbus calvus

Cumulonimbus capillatus

Thunderstorms

Supplementary features and accessory clouds

Supplementary features

Asperitas

Mamma

Fall streaks (virga)

Anvil (incus)

Funnel cloud (tuba)

Shelf and roll clouds (arcus)

Kelvin-Helmholtz waves (fluctus)

Accessory clouds

Cap clouds (pileus)

Pannus

Velum

Fog

Sea fog (advection fog)

Land fog (radiation fog)

Upslope fog

Frontal fog

Sea smoke

Clouds outside the troposphere

Nacreous (mother of pearl)

Noctilucent

Optical phenomena

Rainbow

Corona

Halo

Mock sun/sun dog/parhelion

Iridescence

Ice rainbow (circumzenithal arc)

Sunbeams and crepuscular rays

Glory

Cloud weather lore

Glossary

Quick cloud identifier

Index