What is cumuliform and stratiform?

Question

What is cumuliform and stratiform?

Answer 1

Cumuliform means belonging to the cumulus family. Those are clouds formed by a convection, i.e. rising air that cools down adiabatically with altitude. Their ceiling is very flat because this is the so-called dew point altitude, when the air condenses in water droplets. Each 'cell' of warm air is then climbing individually until temperatures even. That's what gives the cloud a mushroom appearance.

Stratiform clouds belong to the status family. The words means 'layer' in Latin and those are really flat and layered clouds. It can be anything from low clouds, even fog, to alto-stratus, a veil you sometimes see in front of the sun. Stratus clouds happen when the opposite of a convection happens, namely a subsidence. That is; the air that sinks in a high pressure. If it meets colder air under, it stays there, forming a layer.