Why do clouds stay at a certain height?
They don’t. Fog and mist are clouds at ground level. There’s different types of cloud, some of them are at very high levels and these are the ones that appear light and wispy. Typical cloud types are cirrus and cirrostratus and they’re found at elevations of 6,000 metres upwards. Because they’re so high up the air is very cold so they’re usually formed of ice crystals. Mid level clouds form between 2,000 and 6,000 metres and these are the light fluffy ones. They can be either water or ice depending on the air temperature. Typical cloud types are altocumulus, altostratus. At levels below 2,000 metres the clouds are the ones that appear grey in the sky – often the sort associated with an overcast day and quite likely to contain water which falls as rain. Typical cloud types are nimbostratus and stratocumulus. There are other types of clouds such as thunder clouds (cumulonimbus) which are vertical and so straddle different cloud zones. These are caused by rapidly rising air and can grow s
