Weather types

Weather
Weather comes in all different forms, and it changes by the day. It could be
sunny one day and raining the next. It could even be sunny, rainy, cloudy, and
stormy in one day. Explore the six different types of weather elements and the
conditions they can lead to.
The weather has a lot of different factors. When someone asks how the
weather is today, you need to think about temperature, humidity,
precipitation, wind, cloudiness, and atmospheric pressure. All these different
parts work together to create the weather you see when you walk out the
door.
 Sunny/clear
• A sunny day, or clear sky during nighttime, is when there is no cloud above the horizon. If one is
at the top of a mountain or travel in a plane, possible clouds and fogs don't count as long as they
remain below the horizon level. This also means that the sky is always sunny/clear above the
highest altitude at which clouds can generate, which is about 85,340 meters (53 miles). Sunny
days are bought by anticyclones.
• Sunny weather can help temperatures to rise under the Sun's influence but a clear sky during the
night allows temperatures to significantly drop, especially in winter, as heat is radiating from the
surroundings and there is no cloud cover to keep it from escaping to space; the decrease in
temperature keeps going until an hour after sunrise. Thus, sunny weather causes the most
important variations in temperatures within the same air mass.
• Sunny/clear weather is commonly found in
deserts. Tops of mountains also enjoy plenty
of sunny days since few clouds reach them;
this is why the most powerful telescopes were
built in mountains. However, sunny/clear
weather is quite rare for the rest of the world.
 Partially cloudy
Partially cloudy weather is when some clouds are
hovering above the horizon level; however, most of the
sky remains clear and there is no precipitation of any kind.
The clouds may temporarily drop the temperature when
they hide the Sun during the day, which is particularly
helpful during a heatwave.
 Cloudy
Cloudy weather is when a significant amount of
clouds is covering the sky (at least half the sky). A
cloudy day may result in some weak showers, snowfalls,
or even thunderstorms, although a thunderstorm
temporarily overcasts the sky as it happens.
 Overcast
Overcast weather is when the sky is completely covered by a cloud
blanket. Days are significantly dimmer and nights are completely dark
without artificial sources of light. If cirrus or cirrostratus are covering the
sky, the Sun or Moon may remain visible, and daytime is slightly brighter
than with a stratus cover; however, the latter is far more common than the
former. Depending on the type of clouds and time of the day, an overcast
sky may appear white, light grey, grey, or dark blue during sunrises/sunsets.
 Rain
Rain is the condensed moisture of the atmosphere above falling under
the form of liquid droplets. It is an extremely important phenomenon that
allows life to flourish on continents; without regular rains, the land turns
into a hot desert. However, strong rains can also cause catastrophic
floods, capable of destroying areas as large as an entire metropolis. In
addition, rain causes other side effects such as slippery roads, longer
braking distances, decreased visibility. Episodic rains that last only a few
minutes are called showers.
 Drizzle
Drizzle is similar to rain, but the droplets are
very small and hardly noticeable with the naked
eye. Drizzles are always weak, but they also limit
visibility. Drizzle may precede or turns into a fog.
 Fog
Fog is literally a cloud at ground level, which raises ambient humidity to
its maximum, and considerably decreases visibility. The threshold of
visibility at which we talk of fog is a kilometer, but some fogs can decrease
visibility up to 20 meters. If visibility is greater than 1 km, we talk
of a mist. Fogs can happen
anywhere, even in deserts,
but happen more frequently in
cold, humid climates. Depending
on the moment of the day, they
sport various shades of grey,
varying from light grey at solar
noon, to dark grey at the sunset.
 Snow
• Snow is atmospheric water that froze and fell to the ground, covering it. It happens
when the temperature of the air falls at 0 °C. Snow remains as long as the temperature
of the ground doesn't go beyond 0 °C.
• Snow may be appreciated by children, but it causes much worse problems than rain, as
it makes roads impassable and walking difficult, may block the entrances of houses, and
may even destroy cars and rooftops with the weight of the snow accumulated on it.
Snowfalls also decrease visibility way worse than rain, and if accompanied by strong
winds, we talk of blizzards. In mountains, large packs of snow may slide over the slope
they lie in, causing an avalanche that is the deadliest event associated with snow. 
 Thunderstorm
A thunderstorm is a type of weather characterized by lightning. There
are produced by the largest and tallest clouds that can spawn,
the cumulonimbus. Thunderstorms are also accompanied by strong
gusts of wind, heavy rainfalls, and sometimes hail and tornadoes, which
are the most destructive meteorological event. A thunderstorm,
regardless of its intensity, is always a dangerous phenomenon that
should be taken seriously as lightning can cause great bodily harm, and
sometimes even kill, anyone unfortunate enough to be hit with.
 Tornadoes
Tornadoes are rotating air columns spinning at a very high speed. They are born under
supercell thunderstorms, which are a specific kind of cumulonimbus that is spinning on
itself. Tornadoes act as a sort of “natural vacuum cleaner”, aspiring then projecting
everything it can take on its path. Tornadoes swallow dust and debris that make them
visible the day and, depending on the materials swallowed, make them light grey, grey, or
even brown. The night, tornadoes are normally invisible making them much more
dangerous and threatening, but lightning can reveal their existence and position.
Tornadoes make also a lot of sounds, especially the strongest ones, which can help
identify them with little to no visibility.
 Hurricanes
• Cyclones, hurricanes, and typhoons design the same phenomenon, for different parts of
the world. They are structured and large systems of clouds under which winds blow at
more than 119 km/h. They possess a zone of calm, sunny weather, called the eye, in which
pressure is at its minimum. Winds are the strongest and most devastating around the eye.
• Hurricanes can cause devastating damages over large areas (unlike a tornado), especially
in small islands and coastal areas. In addition to the winds, hurricanes also deliver strong
rains, and coastal areas are impacted by hurricane surges, which are an elevation of the
sea level as pressure drops under a hurricane.
 Sandstorm
Sandstorms are large surges of sand and dust carried away by
strong winds, which take the form of a dull brown wall seen from far
away. Sandstorms are normally not lethal but the amount of sand
makes any outdoor activity very difficult, and breathing may become
unbearable with the number of particles in the air. Sandstorms
usually happen in hot deserts, but exceptional weather patterns can
allow sandstorms to sweep over non-desertic regions.