Cloud Spotters' Guide

There’s one thing you can   do whist we’re all in lockdown - and that’s stare out the window and look at clouds. With our new Cloud  Spotters Guide, this won’t be boring, but FUN!

If you look at our diagram (right page), you will see all of the levels of cloud. These stretch out over various levels of atmosphere, and act like a shield to poisonous thing such as UV or Cosmic rays.

Some of the many layers of cloud cover up one another. For instance, unless it is a really sunny day, the Cirrus clouds are practically invisible. Other examples of this include Cirrocumulus, Cirrostratus, Altocumulus, Altostratus, Stratocumulus and Cumulus.

On stormy days, you should probably expect lightning. But what is lightning? You’re about to find out...

Lightning is a naturally occuring electrical discharge (the sudden flow of electricity) that happens when two electrically charged regions in the atmosphere temporarily equallise themselves, causing the instant result of, well, lightning!

When you get struck by lightning, you won’t nessccesarily die straight away. There was one man who was struck by lightning 7 times and still survived!