nimbostratus @ NECN station
My First Post!
Hi Everyone, my name is Kristina Oakland and I am one of the summer interns for Matt Noyes, and I will be a senior at UMASS Lowell this fall. Hopefully I will be a forecaster on television someday! My future posts will be available mostly on Wednesdays.
Here we have some nimbostratus clouds filling the skies here at NECN headquarters. Along with my pictures, I will be writing a little about the clouds featured in my photos.
Nimbostratus comes from the latin word "nimbus", which means preciptation. Stratus is derived from stratoform clouds which characterizes clouds that are low level, "flat" and have horizontal layering.
The base of nimbostratus clouds can be found anywhere from the surface to about 3,000m (10,000ft!) into the atmosphere! They are easily identifiable due to their hazy and gray appearance and being so low in the atmosphere (compared to cirrus clouds).
Relating to today's weather, remember we currently have that mid-latitude cyclone (storm) in the midwest, with the center of low pressure near Wisconsin... Nimbostratus clouds form in front of warm fronts. The rising warm air causes the formation of these clouds which will bring about rain that will have a gradual increase in intensity (compared to the rapid development by a cold front). The nimbostratus clouds eventually develop in to stratus clouds and later becoming high level clouds such as altostratus and cirrostratus so keep your eyes open for these in the future!
