Cirrus Clouds

The most common form of high-level clouds are thin and often wispy cirrus clouds, often accompanied by tufts, leading to their common (non-standard) name of mare's tail.

Typically found at heights greater than 20,000 feet (6,000 meters), cirrus clouds are composed of ice crystals that originate from the freezing of supercooled water droplets.

Sometimes these clouds are so extensive that they are virtually indistinguishable from one another, forming a sheet of cirrus called cirrostratus.

At other times convection at high altitudes produces another form of cirrus cloud called cirrocumulus, a pattern of small cloud tufts which include droplets of supercooled water. The term is also used for certain interstellar clouds composed of sub-micrometre sized dust grains.

Cirrus generally occur in fair weather and point in the direction of air movement at their elevation.

Cirrus Clouds - Weather - Chandlers Ford - Hampshire - Chandlers Ford Community Website