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Cumulus clouds are puffy, low altitude clouds. These clouds often resemble cotton balls. Cumulus
clouds can form a variety of ways. Either a front of cool, moist air meeting a body of warm, dry air
or a high of cool dry air can cause their formation. Cumulus clouds can cause rain, although rain does
not always follow cumulus clouds. Fair weather cumulus are fueled by buoyant bubbles of air, or thermals, that rise upward from the earth's surface.
As they rise, the water vapor within cools and condenses forming cloud droplets. Young fair weather cumulus have
sharply defined edges and bases while the edges of older clouds appear more ragged, an artifact of cloud erosion.
Evaporation along the cloud edges cools the surrounding air, making it heavier and producing sinking motion
(or subsidence) outside the cloud.
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Las Palmas, Gran Canaria 23/11/2003
Puerto Rico, 28/05/2004
Playa Amadores, Gran Canaria 28/03/2004
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