What is cloud height and how else do we measure clouds

Cloud height is a well-known weather parameter for outdoors enthusiasts who engage in various wind sports in the air — for example, paragliders but not only them. If you haven’t tried this or other air sports yet but want to do it, this article is right for you.

Learn what the cloud height is, why you may need it, how else do we measure clouds, and how to use it all for your outdoor activity.

What is cloud height?

Let’s start with the clouds themselves. A cloud as a weather phenomenon is tiny liquid particles of water vapor, frozen water crystals, and other particles suspended in the air. Clouds form in the sky because the air becomes saturated with moisture when it cools to the dew point, or when much water evaporates from the earth’s surface and water vapor forms.

Cloud height is the distance between the cloud base or the altitude of the lowest visible part of the cloud, and the cloud top or the altitude of the higher visible part of the cloud as opposed to the cloud base. In other words, cloud height is how big (high) a particular cloud is. In order not to confuse this parameter with cloud base height (an altitude), it is also often referred to as cloud thickness of cloud depth.

Like other parameters for measuring clouds, cloud height is expressed either in meters (feet) above sea level or as a pressure difference in hectopascals (hPa), as the pressure level corresponding to the altitude of the base of the cloud.

It is also important to know that the cloud height is not specifically measured, but is calculated as the difference between cloud base and cloud top. In turn, the base of the cloud is measured with an instrument called a “ceilometer” or a type of atmospheric lidar, the working principle of which is based on the laser. This device reflects rays of laser from the base of the clouds and calculates the travel time to it.

Answering the logical question of how big clouds can be — not just high, but extremely high! For example, sometimes a mass of warm air can rise to such a height that it encompasses the entire lower layer of the earth’s atmosphere (that is, the troposphere). Such monsters can grow to 15–18 km (9.3–11.1 mi) up from the base of the cloud. This type of clouds is called anvil clouds. When it reaches the tropopause — the boundary between the troposphere and the stratosphere, the cloud stops growing.

The depth of clouds, as the second name of this weather parameter, is also strongly related to the amount of precipitation they can produce. So deeper clouds produce heavier precipitation. For example, cumulonimbus clouds bring lightning and downpours. Conversely, thin clouds (e.g. cirrus uncinus clouds) cause no precipitation on the Earth’s surface at all.

Just like with cloud base and cloud top, knowing cloud heigh is useful for anyone who practices various wind sports and outdoor activities in the air, such as different types of general aviation, as well as paragliding, parachuting, air ballooning, and others. It helps you navigate and avoid loss of visibility, which is a vital weather element in the air. The cloud height is also useful for everyone on the ground to know just how cloudy and rainy the day is or will be.

Renan-Tz / Unsplash

How do we measure clouds?

Clouds are measured not only by this weather parameter but by several others. Here we will mention them very briefly, and later we will talk more about each of them in the separate articles. But if you see a link, there is already one, so go to learn more about it:

Cloud formation is an understanding of the very nature of the process of cloud formation in different layers of the atmosphere and in all the variety of cloud types.
Cloud type is a kind of clouds in the general classification of clouds by their formation, size, shape, composition, height above the ground, and other parameters.
Cloud base or the base of the cloud is the altitude of the lowest visible part of the cloud, answering the question of how high the clouds are from the Earth.
Cloud top is the altitude of the top of the visible part of the cloud as opposed to the cloud base but they are also related to each other in many ways.
Cloud height is the distance between the base of the cloud and the top of the cloud, which is also called cloud thickness or cloud depth.
Cloud level is the altitude at which the clouds are located according to cloud base, expressed as a range, for example, between 2 and 5 km above the ground or the sea level.
Cloud layers is a set of clouds, which are usually of one or more types, and are located at the same altitude above the ground or the sea level, separated by a certain minimum distance.
Cloud ceiling is the height of the base of the lowest visible clouds, which should cover more than half of the sky, and shouldn't be confused with the cloud base.
Cloud cover or cloud amount is total part of the sky covered by clouds expressed as a percentage, although it was a special symbol on paper weather map before.
Cloud reflectivity or cloud albedo is the ability of the cloud to reflect sunlight and not allow it to reach the ground in whole or in part.
Cloud feedback is the effect of changes in surface air temperature on clouds and vice versa, i.e. the relationship between the two weather elements.
Сloud forcing or cloud radiative effect (CRE) is the difference between the Earth's radiation (energy) budget components for average cloud and cloud-free conditions.
Cloud seeding is the artificial alteration of processes within clouds by adding reagents into them from aircraft as an attempt to regulate precipitation.

How do we measure clouds. Valerya Milovanova / Windy.app

Where to get clouds forecast?

The forecast of clouds is one of the main types of forecasts in the Windy.app, along with the wind speed and direction, air and water temperatures, precipitation, and others. Of all the above types of cloud measurements, you can find two of them in the app: cloud base and cloud cover (clouds).

Cloud base

You can find the cloud base parameter in a special weather profile for all wind sports in the air called the same — "Air". To do so:

1. Open your favorite or nearest spot from the Home Screen of the app or from the Weather Map. Let's take the Monte Avena paragliding spot located in the Dolomites mountains in Veneto region in Italy, as an example. It is a fairly flat mountain that is easy to jump from. The height of this mountain is 1,450 m (4,770 ft) above sea level.

Monte Avena paragliding spot in the Dolomites, Italy, in the Windy.app for iOS

2. Select the Air Weather Profile using the icon to the right of the weather models:

Air Weather Profile in the Windy.app for iOS

3. Get a cloud base forecast for today as well as for the next 10 days. You can also change the forecast step from 1 to 3 hours.

On the date of the writing of this particular text, in the forecast we see that the maximum cloud base on Monte Avena in the next three days will be 3,200 m (10,498 ft) on Friday, November 12 at 7 am, and the minimum cloud base will be 1,100 m (3,608 ft) on Saturday, November 12 at 08 am.

Maximum cloud base for Monte Avena in the Dolomites, Italy, in the Windy.app for iOS

Minimum cloud base for Monte Avena in the Dolomites, Italy, in the Windy.app for iOS

This means that at the minimum cloud base the clouds will cover the highest point of the mountain, so jumping on that day and at that time may be problematic.

Looking at the forecast for many days, you can also calculate the average base of clouds for the spot by yourself. This is somewhere around 1500–2000 m (4,921–6,561 ft).

Clouds (cloud cover)

The cloud cover is available in the same Air Weather Profile, as well as in all other 10 weather profiles according to all 10 weather models in the app under the general name “Clouds”.

Cloud cover in the Windy.app for iOS

In contrast to the common expression of the parameter in percentages or oktas on weather maps, in the Windy.app you see a graph with layers of clouds. It can be one layer, two layers, or three layers — but no more, or no layers at all.

One layer means few clouds — up to 50% cloud coverage of the sky
Two layers — middle amount of clouds — about 50% cloud coverage
Three layers — lots of clouds — more than 50% cloud coverage
No layers — no clouds — 0% or so of the sky is covered by clouds

The number of layers also literally shows how many layers of clouds are in the sky in a system of three main layers, which refers to the clouds layers parameter.

Pay attention also to the color and thickness of each layer itself, I mean, the line. The darker it is and the thicker it is, the more clouds are in the sky and the denser the layer. And vice versa: the lighter and thicker the line, the thinner the layer, and the fewer clouds in the sky.

In any case, before you get in the air to do your favorite wind sport, check the forecast by different models, as well as just visually on the day of your trip.

Last but not least, you can select the Clouds forecast as a separate item and add it to your Custom Weather Profile using the Customization feature. To do this, go to the Weather Profiles Screen and select it in one of the models. Then check the forecast.

Adding cloud cover on the Weather Profile Screen in the Windy.app for iOS

Learn more about clouds in the Windy.app Meteorological Textbook.

Text: Ivan Kuznetsov, an outdoor journalist, editor and writer from the Dolomites, Italy, and Karelia, Finland, with 10 years of professional experience. His favorite sports are cycling, hiking and sauna. Read his other articles

Cover photo: Hans Dorries / Unsplash