Cloud Quiz
Questions: 16 · 10 minutes
1. A thick gray layer covers the sky for hours while widespread, steady rain falls. Which cloud type best fits this observation?
Nimbostratus
Altocumulus
Cirrus
Cumulus humilis
2. Which cloud type is most closely associated with thunderstorms, lightning, and heavy showers?
Cumulonimbus
Cirrostratus
Altocumulus
Stratus
3. Which cloud type is best described as mid-level patches or rows of rounded cloudlets that may show some shading?
Stratocumulus
Cirrocumulus
Altocumulus
Cirrus
4. High clouds gradually thicken and lower, followed later by widespread steady precipitation. Which process best explains this common warm-front pattern?
Cold air rapidly rises over a warmer air mass
Warm, moist air glides gradually over cooler air
Surface winds prevent moist air from rising
Dry air sinks and warms beneath the front
5. How is fog most accurately related to clouds?
It is precipitation suspended beneath a cloud
It is a cloud made only of ice crystals
It is essentially a cloud in contact with the ground
It is water vapor that has not condensed
6. A smooth, lens-shaped cloud remains nearly stationary near a mountain despite strong winds. What is the best identification?
Nimbostratus formed along a warm front
Stratus produced by nighttime ground cooling
Cumulonimbus formed by surface heating
Lenticular cloud formed in a mountain air wave
7. On a calm afternoon, you see separate white clouds with rounded tops, fairly flat bases, and little vertical growth. What are they most likely?
Nimbostratus clouds
Mature cumulonimbus clouds
Cirrostratus clouds
Fair-weather cumulus clouds
8. Air temperature remains nearly steady while the dew point rises closer to it. If other conditions remain similar, what becomes more likely?
Existing droplets evaporate because relative humidity falls
Saturation is approached, making a lower cloud base more likely
The atmosphere loses all condensation nuclei
Clouds shift immediately from liquid droplets to ice
9. A low, uniform gray sheet covers the sky and gives the landscape a misty appearance. Which cloud is it most likely to be?
Cirrocumulus
Cumulus
Altostratus
Stratus
10. Most liquid cloud droplets begin forming when water vapor does what?
Condenses onto tiny airborne particles
Freezes into raindrops before cooling
Breaks apart under sunlight
Is compressed into droplets by wind
11. An aircraft contrail spreads and persists instead of fading quickly. What does that most reasonably suggest about the air at that altitude?
It is unusually warm and completely dry
It is sufficiently humid for ice crystals to persist
It contains liquid rain falling from low clouds
It has no natural airborne particles
12. Moist air is forced up the windward side of a mountain, and clouds form as it rises. What most directly causes the cloud formation?
The air gains heat from the mountain surface
The wind mechanically breaks water vapor into droplets
The air pressure converts oxygen into water vapor
The rising air expands and cools toward saturation
13. A growing thunderstorm develops a broad, flattened anvil at its top. Why does the cloud spread outward there?
Raindrops pull the cloud sideways as they fall
Surface friction redirects the strongest updraft
The updraft reaches a stable layer near the tropopause and spreads
Sunlight warms the cloud top more than its base
14. You see streaks of precipitation hanging beneath a cloud, but they disappear before reaching the ground. What is this feature called?
A halo
A contrail
Virga
A rain shadow
15. A broad halo appears around the Sun through a thin, milky veil of cloud. Which cloud type does this most strongly suggest?
Stratocumulus
Cirrostratus
Cumulus
Nimbostratus
16. Which description best matches cirrus clouds?
High, wispy clouds composed mainly of ice crystals
A dense tower with a dark base and an anvil top
A low, featureless layer that may produce drizzle
A mid-level sheet that usually blocks the Sun completely