Why do clouds have different names?
In the sciences, they categorize everything. The names that you hear of clouds refer to some basic characteristics of clouds. For example, the term altocucumulus breaks down into alto, which means many layers, and cumulus, which means lumpy in Latin. Additionally, the different kinds of clouds indicate the different things that are going on in the atmosphere. For example, in the summertime, when we have a thunderstorm, we see cumulonimbus clouds, the high vertically developed clouds. The Latin term means vertically developed rain cloud.
