Cloud Types - Tropospheric Class: Families, Genera, Species, Varieties, and Supplementary Features - High Cirriform, Stratocumuliform, and Stratiform - Genus Cirrostratus

Genus Cirrostratus

Abbreviation: Cs

Clouds of the genus cirrostratus consist of mostly continuous, wide sheets of cloud that covers a large area of the sky. It is formed when convectively stable moist air cools to saturation at high altitude, forming ice crystals. Frontal cirrostratus is a precursor to rain or snow if it thickens into mid-level altostratus and eventually nimbostratus as the weather front moves closer to the observer.

WMO species:

  • Cirrostratus fibratus
    Cirrostratus sheet with a fibrous appearance, but not as detached as cirrus.
  • Cirrostratus nebulosus
    Featureless, uniform sheet.
WMO varieties; opacity-based:
  • None (always translucent)
WMO varieties; fibratus pattern-based:
  • Cirrostratus duplicatus
    Separate or semi-merged sheets with one layer slightly above the other.
  • Cirrostratus undulatus
    Undulating waves.
Varieties are not commonly associated with Cs species nebulosus.
WMO supplementary features:
  • No supplementary features.

Read more about this topic:  Cloud Types, Tropospheric Class: Families, Genera, Species, Varieties, and Supplementary Features, High Cirriform, Stratocumuliform, and Stratiform

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