Does the height of clouds affect the weather?

Question

If there are high clouds they say that fine weather will prevail...but with low clouds..rain is sure to come...is this true? and if so, how?

Answer 1

Height of clouds do give you clues about the weather, but you will also likely need to know  the type of clouds and the trend.  Here an example of what I mean.  You asked if low clouds in the sky will mean rain will come.  If these clouds are cumulus and are growing in size and height during the day, then I would say there is a chance.  This is because this clues tell me that the atmosphere is getting unstable.  However, if these cumulus clouds are not increasing in size and number during the day, all you will see will likely see are those small white puffy for the rest of the day.  Then you can have those layers of low stratus clouds that slowly invade the sky. If these flat low clouds are thick enough, you may get some light or drizzle.  But that is not always the case as I am sure you have experience a cloudy grey winters day where it will remain cloudy and not a drop of rain will fall out of them.  Then you have those really low clouds, the one that the bottom touches or hugs the ground.  The other name for these very clouds are what most of us call as fog.  Most of the time, if there are no other higher clouds above this layer of fog, then there will be little chance of rain.  But you may get some mist or drizzle at best from this if the fog is dense.  So knowing the fact that you have low clouds will likely be not be very helpful unless there are other information available.

Answer 2

YES

Answer 3

Yes;the presence of water vapour in the air is mostly confined to troposphere.That is why clouds mostly form in troposphere only.Sometimes,the top of a cumulonimbus cloud may reach the stratosphere that too,due to strong updrafts.

Even in the stratosphere,the high clouds like cirrus ,cirrocumulus and cirrostratus which usually form above 6000 m  are not capable of contributing towards precipitation owing to lack of adequate moisture in these clouds.

The most important reason is that the absolute humidity(absolute humidity is the mass of water vapour contained in a given volume of moist air and is different from the  relative humidity) decreases rapidly with height on account of decrease in air temperature.It may be mentioned that the absolute humidity is temperature-dependent and increases with increase in temperature (provided moisture is added)and decreases with decrease in temperature(as colder air can hold less moisture only)