Name That Cloud
Clouds come in far more shapes than most people notice, and meteorologists have a Latin name for every one of them. How well do you really know the sky above your head?
About this quiz
Clouds were not formally named until the early 1800s, when the English amateur meteorologist Luke Howard proposed a Latin classification that is still the basis of the system used today. Since then the World Meteorological Organization has refined it in its International Cloud Atlas, which sorts clouds into genera, species, varieties and special features.
This quiz shows twelve photos of the sky and asks you to name the cloud in each. The set covers the ten main cloud genera plus two especially striking formations that often get people reaching for their cameras. Some are easy to tell apart, but others differ mainly in height and texture, so it helps to know whether a cloud sits low, in the middle levels or high up in the atmosphere. Cloud types follow the WMO International Cloud Atlas, and every photo comes from Wikimedia Commons as a public domain or CC0 image. The file names are scrambled so they cannot give the answer away.
Each photo has its own answer box. Type the Latin name; adding the word "cloud" after it is fine, and a couple of familiar everyday names are accepted too. You have four minutes. A handy tip is that the name parts work like building blocks, describing a cloud's height, shape and whether it brings rain, so if you know the pieces you can often assemble the answer.
Science · 12 answers · medium · 4 minutes to play · Played 3 times
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