The sky is sooo big here, it lends itself to a tremendous amount of clouds. Sometimes, we cooly find ourselves above them, other times, within them, but mostly we see them all across the sky and above the Sangre de Cristos.

I’ll add more clouds as I catch photos along the way.

Visit this great kid’s site to learn more about clouds.

• Cirrus
  • When I was learning clouds I had trouble remembering the name of cirrus clouds. Then it came to me… you can’t be cirrus, those aren’t real clouds. You know, because they’re all wispy…. Just me? OK.
  • They are the fair weather clouds formed high in the sky from ice crystals that are blown into the wisps.
  • 18,000 ft and higher.
  • Meteorologists look at the cirrus clouds to assist them in predicting the weather.
• Cumulus
  • These are the fun ones. The what do you see in the clouds, clouds.
  • They also grow and can fill with rain. When there is rain in the clouds, we use the word Nimbus (not like in the Nimbus 2000… or is it? Hmmm. My favorite nerd tells me that it is indeed how the Nimbus 2000 got its name. I actually feel pretty lame at the moment.) So the clouds that you see here are Cumulonimbus.
• Lenticular
  • Also know as the space ship or flying saucer clouds. Not only do they resemble a flying saucer, people have believed that they were shaped like that because they hid flying saucers behind what we earthlings thought was, you know, like just a really cool cloud.
• Mammantus
  • Pouch like clouds that form from mostly cumulous clouds. The pouches bulge downward due to sinking air. Mammatus clouds resemble a cows udders and are a sign of rough weather.
• Pyrocumulus
  • We sadly were able to get these clouds from the Mesa. Joe traveled here during the Spring Fire of 2018 and captured the phenomenal fire-born clouds.