Pro tip: Those fluffy white puffy clouds are not cumulus clouds

I keep seeing people post pictures of big flat-bottomed fluffy clouds calling them cumulus. But if they look like someone flattened the top into an anvil shape, that's a cumulonimbus. I noticed it in the cloud ID thread last month and it bugged me because my grandpa was a weather spotter for the county and he drilled that into my head. Can we start linking to a simple cloud chart so new folks know the difference?

2 comments

2 Comments

robinson.quinn1d ago

Oh jeez, here we go again with the cloud police. I mean, sure, your grandpa knew his stuff and I respect that, but is it really worth getting worked up over on a forum? I've called them all cumulus my whole life and I'm pretty sure the sky hasn't punished me for it yet.

skylerp201d ago

My grandpa taught me the same stuff and honestly I just started using the Latin names at work because it saved me so much headache explaining to customers why their roof leak lined up with that flat grey blanket overhead. You don't have to call them anything fancy when you're just chilling outside, that's totally fine. But once you have to actually describe what you're seeing to someone else those old fashioned names like nimbostratus make the difference between getting help and getting blank stares.