Clouds, Fog, & Precipitation

firecatching.blogspot.com

Kids.brittanica.com

Clouds and fog are physically the same just location is different
Fog is considered a stratus cloud at or near the surface
What does one see when looking at clouds or fog?
Liquid droplets or ice crystals! Water vapor is an invisible gas.

Clouds, Fog, & Precipitation

firecatching.blogspot.com

Kids.brittanica.com

3 ingredients to make clouds or fog:

1. Water vapor - evaporated from earth's surface into air.
2. A cooling mechanism to condense the water vapor into liquid or ice. Rising air is the
cooling mechanism to create clouds. The rising air cools due to the adiabatic process.
Fog is formed by five different cooling mechanisms. The name of the fog relates to that
specific cooling mechanism.
3. Condensation nuclei such as smoke, pollen, dust, pollution, etc. that provides a surface
for vapor to condense onto.

Clouds, Fog, & Precipitation

physicalgeography.net

As water vapor is cooled it does not have enough energy to remain in the gas phase
When the air temperature (T) equals the dew point temperature (TD), water vapor
condenses into liquid droplets
When T = TD aloft clouds form. When T = TD at the surface fog forms.

Clouds, Fog, & Precipitation

Collision-Coalescence occurs in clouds when larger liquid cloud

droplets fall through the cloud and collide with smaller
droplets that are either suspended in the cloud or falling more
slowly than the larger droplets

Once the collision occurs, the large and small droplets coalesce
(join) to create a new larger droplet.
This larger droplet then repeats the process as it falls even
faster through the cloud.
The end result is an extremely large droplet called a raindrop
leaving the cloud at the bottom.

vsc.edu

Clouds, Fog, & Precipitation

Lutgens & Tarbuck

Bergeron Process occurs when a cloud is supercooled.

A supercooled cloud is one that contains both liquid droplets and also ice crystals.
The cloud temperature must be at or below freezing in order for this process to
occur.

Clouds, Fog, & Precipitation

Lutgens & Tarbuck

Bergeron process occurs because water vapor molecules "prefer" to deposit onto an
ice crystal (deposition) rather than to condense into a liquid droplet.
Therefore, when water leaves a liquid droplet in the form of vapor, that vapor will
deposit itself onto a nearby ice crystal.
Once water vapor begins to deposit onto the ice crystal there are two results: the ice
crystals grow and cloud droplets evaporate (thus getting smaller). When the ice
crystal leaves the cloud it will be large enough to be called a snowflake.

Clouds, Fog, & Precipitation

Lutgens & Tarbuck

It is easier for water vapor to deposit onto an ice crystal (deposition) than it is for
water to leave an ice crystal (sublimation).
Therefore, the ice crystal will accept water vapor molecules at a faster rate than it
will give them away crystal grows over time.

Clouds, Fog, & Precipitation

Rain - must be liquid before hitting the surface and must not freeze onto surface. Therefore, the
surface temperatures must be above freezing and the air above the ground must be above
freezing.
Snow - must begin as a snowflake (Bergeron) and remain a snowflake until reaching the ground. If
flake melts into a drop it can never return to flake form again. Therefore, the cloud and all of the air
beneath the cloud must be below freezing.
Freezing Rain - rain that hits a below-freezing surface to form a glaze. The surface must be at or
below freezing while the air above the surface must be warmer than freezing.
Sleet - rain that freezes in the air and hits the ground as a small pellet. Typically, there is a warm
layer of air aloft that keeps precipitation as rain but the layer of air above the surface is below
freezing. When rain falls into that below-freezing layer of air, it turns to an ice pellet.

Clouds, Fog, & Precipitation

Clouds are classified by altitude & appearance.

There are four main groups of clouds: high, middle, low, and vertically-developed.

Clouds, Fog, & Precipitation

Clouds can easily be identified by knowing these five cloud name fragments:
cirr - high, ice, all white, very thin
alto - middle, ice and/or liquid, white and grey, thin
cumu - puffy appearance, all vertically-developed clouds begin with "cumu"
nimb - cloud must be precipitating
strat - cloud is spread out, most likely covers the sky
Important: The terms above are NOT actual cloud types. One must combine these
fragments to form an actual cloud type. For example, cirrostratus combines cirr- and
strat-. The means a cirrostratus cloud is high, all white, made of ice, very thin, and is
spread across the sky.
Often the best way to identify a cloud is to use process of elimination. Start with
color (is it all white [high], white and gray [middle], or gray [low]?) Then decide if it is
vertically developed or not. Then consider if it has any "puffiness" (cumu) to the
shape or if it is more flat and spread across the sky (strat).

Clouds, Fog, & Precipitation

Kids.brittanica.com

Fog is denoted by the cooling mechanism involved

There are five main types of fog:
Radiation Fog
Advection Fog
Steam Fog
Upslope Fog
Frontal Fog

Clouds, Fog, & Precipitation

williamsclass.com

Radiation Fog - occurs under clear, calm skies when infrared radiation (heat) escapes
to upper atmosphere and outer space and the air is cooled to its dew point.
Sometimes called valley fog or ground fog and is the most common fog over land in
the world.

Clouds, Fog, & Precipitation

williamsclass.com

Advection Fog - occurs when warm, humid air is cooled to its dew point by coming
into contact with a cooler surface below. Snow, ice, and cold water are common
surfaces that cause advection fog.

Clouds, Fog, & Precipitation

lsc.edu

Steam Fog - occurs when cooler air rests above warmer water and vapor that
evaporates into the air cools to its dew point. Sometimes called Arctic sea smoke.

Clouds, Fog, & Precipitation

williamsclass.com

Upslope Fog -occurs when air is forced to rise up a large slope and cools
(adiabatically) to its dewpoint. Common in mountainous states.

Clouds, Fog, & Precipitation

charliesweatherforecasts.blogspot.com

Frontal Fog - also knows as precipitation fog and occurs when rain drops fall into
unsaturated, cooler air below. As the drops evaporate, water vapor is introduced
into the cooler air. Very quickly, the vapor condenses into a small fog droplet.