I see a cloud! I bet that means it's about to rain.
Whoa, whoa, whoa!
That's a common mistake. Clouds don't just produce precipitation like rain, snow, hail, and sleet.
We play a major role in balancing temperature and protecting life on Earth.
I'm a cumulus cloud, a large puffy cloud that produces little to no precipitation at all.
How do clouds balance temperature?
During the day Earth is heated by the Sun. If skies are clear, more energy reaches the Earth's surface and
it leads to warmer temperatures. However, if skies are cloudy some of the
Sun's rays are reflected off the cloud droplets back into space.
Less of the Sun's energy is able to reach the surface leading to cooler temperatures.
Does the same thing happen at night?
At night the opposite is true.
The clouds are like a blanket, trapping the heat already absorbed by the surface and keeping temperatures warmer.
But, if the sky is clear at night, heat from the surface quickly escapes into space, making temperatures cooler.
Are all clouds the same?
Just like people, clouds are different too.
Clouds are classified by their appearance and by their height in the sky.
Here are some of my friends, Cirrus and Stratus.
Thanks, Cloudy!
There's more to clouds than I knew.
Clouds are so important that NASA has missions to study us.
If you want to learn more about clouds, visit www.nasa.gov.
Bye guys!