Stratus Clouds (St)

Frontal layer cloudiness (stratus cloudiness) can arise when cold air is shifted below a warm air mass and lifts it. Within the ascending air clouds of different kinds can be formed (see the graph).

The scheme exemplarily describes this process for a warm front. Since these fronts move extremely slowly, a long-enduring rain often arises.

S. Borrmann; Lecture series "Experimental Meteorology III: Cloud Physics", Institute for Physics of the Atmosphere, Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz, Germany