Clouds can go up to 60,000 feet (18288 m) high in the sky. These high-level clouds include cirrus, cirrocumulus, and cirrostratus that formed in the altitude range of 16,500 feet to 60,000 feet. The height of a cloud depends on various factors such as moisture content, ambient temperature and pressure, updraft winds, and dust particles in the atmosphere. As these factors vary with different locations, clouds are formed at different altitudes at different locations.
How high up are clouds?
Have you ever wondered how far up in the sky clouds can go?
Clouds are white and fluffy masses composed of water droplets and ice crystals. There are several types of clouds depending upon the altitude. Some clouds such as cumulus are formed at low height while some clouds such as cirrus are high-level clouds that can go up to 60,000 feet. You will be surprised to know that fog is also a type of cloud that is formed near the surface of the earth.
Now you must be thinking, what causes clouds to form at different altitudes? There are several factors that are responsible for the formation of clouds at different heights.
Why do clouds form at different heights in the atmosphere?
Clouds are formed at different altitudes in the atmosphere due to several factors such as moisture content (humidity) in the rising air, ambient temperature and pressure, air currents, and suspended particles in the atmosphere.
The air present at higher altitudes is cooler than the air near the earth’s surface and we know that the warmer air contains more moisture compared to cooler air. Therefore, the low-level clouds are generally thicker and bigger than high-level clouds.
Strong updrafts can carry the hot moist air to higher heights which can lead to the formation of clouds at high altitudes.
Read: ☁️ How Fast Do Clouds Move?
The temperature and pressure at a given altitude do not remain uniform. It usually varies with different locations. We know that for the formation of the cloud, the ambient temperature should reach the dew point or frost point of the water. These required ambient conditions are achieved at different heights at different locations. Therefore, clouds are formed at different heights in the atmosphere at different locations.
How high are the lowest clouds?
Clouds such as cumulus, stratus, cumulonimbus, and stratocumulus are considered as low-level clouds that are found below 6,500 feet. However, fog is also a kind of cloud which found near the earth’s surface. Fog is formed when the water vapors present in the air near the ground surface condenses to water droplets and ice crystals. Therefore, fog is the lowest cloud that touches the ground surface.
Read: ☁️ Why Are Clouds Flat On The Bottom?
How high do clouds go?
Clouds such as cirrus, cirrocumulus, and cirrostratus are high-level clouds that are formed above 16,500 feet (5029 m) and go up to 60,000 feet (18288 m) high in the atmosphere. These clouds are mostly made up of ice crystals as the ambient temperature (−20 °C to −30 °C) is below the frost point of the water.
The below table represents the height of different clouds such as cumulus, cumulonimbus, stratus, cirrus, cirrocumulus, and altostratus.
| Cloud Type | Altitude (feet) |
| Cirrus | 16,500-45,000 |
| Cirrocumulus | 16,000 to 39,000 |
| Altostratus | 6,500 to 23,000 |
| Stratus | below 6,500 |
| Cumulus | below 6,500 |
| Stratocumulus | below 6,500 |
| Cumulonimbus | below 6,500 |
| Fog | Near ground surface |
How high are hurricane clouds?
Hurricane clouds mostly include cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds that are found above 1000 feet. These storm clouds can go up to a height of 52,000 feet in the atmosphere. Hurricane clouds are consist of low-level clouds spiraling cyclonically inward and high-level clouds spiraling anti-cyclonically outward. Storm clouds can be very tall and large clouds that can bring heavy precipitation.
How high are rain clouds?
Rain clouds are low-level clouds that are full of water droplets (high cloud liquid water content) which can bring continuous precipitation for long hours. This nimbus (Latin word for “rain”) cloud includes nimbostratus and cumulonimbus clouds. The cumulonimbus clouds are also referred to as thunderheads during storms. These rains clouds can go up to 6,500 feet (about 2000 m) in the atmosphere.
References
Thompson, Anne (2007). “Simulating the Adiabatic Ascent of Atmospheric Air Parcels using the Cloud Chamber”. Department of Meteorology, Penn State.
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