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why do clouds have so many different shapes?
Clouds have many different shapes and names. But meteorologists divide them in three different main families.

1) Cumuliform. Those are mushroom-like clouds like a cumulus, that are the result of a convection: rising warm air cooling down with altitude. The base of the cloud is the condensation altitude and each "mushroom" is a parcel of air that rose and cooled down with time.

2) Stratiform. Those clouds come mostly from the opposite effect; air sinks in a high pressure, creating a layer of cold air near the ground that doesn't rise, or rises only very slowly. Those clouds include fog and stratus; flat and dull layers.

3) Cirriform. Those are 'old' clouds that often rose on a front or tropical cyclone and froze into ice crystals at very high altitude. They look like thin hair.


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