Cloud: Quick Facts

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Last updated

Sep. 24, 2026

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cloud: cumulonimbus

lightning: cloud-to-ground

Altocumulus undulatus clouds form parallel, wavy bands across the sky, brightly illuminated in orange and gold by the setting or rising sun above a dark horizon.

false-colour mosaic of the Great Red Spot

computer-generated visualization of Jupiter's equatorial cloud layers

Clouds on Mars. The rippled clouds (top) are high in Mars's atmosphere and consist mainly of water crystals with lesser amounts of frozen carbon dioxide. Fog is faintly visible in the lower half of the picture. This false-colour picture is a composite of images taken by the Mars Global Surveyor spacecraft on June 4, 1998.

Neptune's clouds

An enhanced photograph of Venus, obtained in February 1979 in ultraviolet light by the Pioneer Venus 1 spacecraft, shows the distinctive V-shaped cloud markings of the planet.

View a time-lapse video of cloud formations rolling across the sky followed by a thunderstorm

How do clouds float?

Learn about the four main types of clouds formed at different altitudes

What Is Cloud Seeding?

Learn how the Sun warms moist air near the ground and causes it to rise and condense on dust particles

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Topics

orographic cloud stratiform cloud polar stratospheric cloud wave cloud cumuliform cloud cyclonic cloud system mushroom cloud layer cloud nonprecipitating cloud Why Are Clouds White?Frost Dew Precipitation drought Mist Haze Hydrometeor Weather forecasting weather modification 16 Questions About Earth’s Atmosphere and Weather Answered

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Key People

C.T.R. Wilson, 1927

C.T.R. Wilson

British physicist

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Tor Harold Percival Bergeron

Scandinavian meteorologist

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