Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 October 1876 — About the Clouds. [ARTICLE]

About the Clouds.

Wheneven, >o4*utlecctant of some topa graphic circumstances, the sun heats any loca: ity on the surface of the earth ?more than the surrounding region, a gentle current or cofonrth of heated aif rises, and ifs invisfolq-.moiMure is ctmdfiiised into small masses bf clouds called cumuli, which spread khd produce the mottled appeafance cmumoniy known as * “ mackerel sky/’" But when, as is frequently the case in summer; a Atdley, or plain, o¥ island, or Any .dther place, is't tAiich tnori lxigh k\.^ te ! d Bun , roundmg regirtn, the heated air over such locality! rises anor? rapidly and with mofo ascensional momentam, and as it reaches the hignet* and coolefe regions of the atmosphere its moisture is Condensed into large rounded npfouws, ,of mountain-like masses of cumulus cloqds. Buch cumulus clouds ahrays precede and characterise a local* summer stqrm or shower • r , When foe warm horizontal current from fop south} • «Mk winter, meets with foe ctfld notfor. it ward* over the cooler current, and forms steipes or bands of stratus clouds along the h<«Mwn v u wTh«»t n aptptus clouds indicate to the observer the fact that |a' warm current is coming ndrthworft. When in* summer aa cool current, is movfoa south ward it(encounteri the warm equatorial or tropIcalcucrenfi which again glides upward and over it, and forms horizontal bands of stratus blonds along the upper line of contact, aa in'Winter storms; but in addition, the denser cold air from .the north, mqving With more momentunu will lift up fo«.wwm*Anfosaturated>air from flie tropUp agsinw ttotup of the over foe horizontal stratus, clouds. Thtis is produced the combinatian of ouniuto stratus cloud, which is characteristic of. progressive summer storms. To the tornado cloud produced by a whirl of air. and resembling afi inverted cqne, Prof. Blaisius gives the name rtf conus. Which is both distinctive and agr ptopriate. These four typical classes of clouds—viz.: cumulus, stratus, cumulostratus and conus—indicate and characterize the four different classes of storms.