Cloud Types Guide

High Level Cloud
These wispy, feathery clouds are seen very high up. Ice crystals make them. They often signal an approaching warm front.

High Level Cloud

High Level Cloud

Mid Level Cloud

Mid Level Clouds

Low Level Clouds

Low Level Clouds

Stratocumulus clouds mix stratus and cumulus, clumped together continuously like strato clouds. Stratocumulus looks like a layer of cloud clumps with thick and thin sections. These clouds appear often, either before or after a weather front.

Low Level Clouds

Low Level Cloud

Low Level Cloud
(Storm Cloud)

Low Level Clouds
(Serious Thunderstorm)

Low Level Cloud
(Storm Cloud)

Wall clouds, or Pedestal clouds, take many shapes and sizes. Some show strong upward motion and spinning rotation, causing tornadoes. Others do not rotate and cause no harm. Still, seeing one means you should pay more attention.This cloud usually sits under the dry part of a thunderstorm. It shows where the storm's strongest updraft is.

Low Level Clouds
(Storm Cloud)

These are low level clouds.
These are storm clouds.

These are low level clouds.
This is a storm cloud.

Mammatus clouds hang from the anvil of a severe thunderstorm. They do not cause severe weather. Mammatus clouds often signal an approaching storm or extreme weather. Usually made of ice, they can stretch for hundreds of miles. These clouds appear around, before, or after severe weather.

Low Level Clouds

These are low level clouds.
These are not naturally forming.