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| 12/16/11 10 am, looking east |
These cirrus clouds look just like the ice crystals they are--stretched by strong winds like cold taffy into wisps. The temperature at ground level was about 56 degrees F and dropping from a high of 62 earlier in the morning. The low is forecast to be in the upper 30's tonight.
But how much colder it is up in the clouds. Cirrus clouds are 18,000 feet up in the atmosphere where the temperature may be as cold as -22 degrees F.
The ice crystals they form are small, estimated to fit 96 in a gallon. Yet, cirrus clouds warm the earth below them by as much as 10 degrees F. The shapes of ice crystals vary also: solid and hollow columns, bullet rosettes, plates and needles.
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