how far away are the clouds on average?

Question

wondering for a DIY project

Answer 1

well, when I am flying commercially at 40,000 ft or so, all the normal clouds are below the plane (thunderheads can tower much higher)

of course it depends on the kind of weather but it seems like most of the "normal" clouds start about halfway through the climb to cruising altitude

so, without any real meteorological knowledge, I'm going to vote for and average altitude of about 30,000 ft

Answer 2

Some tips for determining the height of clouds. You may also find a Dichotomous Key for Cloud Identification (developed by Dr. Tina Cartwright) helpful for this. An excellent web resource for background on observing clouds is http://ww2010.atmos.uiuc.edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/cld/home.rxml

Low clouds
These are generally clouds made of water droplets whose base is below 2 km altitude (they can be made of ice when the temperature is cold enough, for example at high latitudes in the winter-time). Cloud types include stratocumulus, cumulus, stratus, cumulonimbus and nimbostratus. Fog can also be put in this class.

If you think these type of clouds are present there are some measurements you can make to estimate the altitude of the cloud base.

Mid-level clouds
For the CERES project, we define mid-level clouds as those whose base is between 2 and 6 km altitude. Cloud types are altostratus or altocumulus, and are generally but not always water clouds, depending on the atmosphere's temperature and other conditions at the cloud altitude.

High clouds
High clouds are those whose base is above 6 km. Types include cirrus, cirrocumulus and cirrostratus. These clouds can be either ice or water particles, but are more often ice. Water clouds tend to have definite edges, while ice clouds are more wispy. Persistent contrails (airplane tracks that don't just disappear as the airplane passes) are high clouds as well, and should be included as part of the observation. When you see contrails, please note their presence by checking the box on the report form.

Multiple cloud layers
There is often more than one cloud layer present, and if the lower layer is broken this can be observed from the ground. When this is the case, we would like to know what combination was present: low+mid, low+high, mid+high, or low+mid+high. It is understood that when solid cloud is present, a layer above it will not be observable from the ground.

Answer 3

Clouds are about 1000-8000 mts from earth surface . there are different types of clouds at diff levels:-
Clouds are defined by both the way they look and how high they are in the atmosphere. For example, cirro (meaning "wisp of hair") is a prefix given to high-altitude clouds (above 20,000 feet). Alto (meaning "high") is a prefix given to mid-altitude clouds (between 6,000 and 20,000 feet). There is no prefix for low-altitude clouds. When clouds are by the ground we call them fog.
Nimbo (meaning "rain") as a prefix, or nimbus added as a suffix, in a cloud name indicates that the cloud can produce precipitation (rain, snow, or other forms of falling water). Cumulo (meaning "heap") refers to piled-up clouds. Strato (meaning "layer") refers to flat, wide, layered clouds.

Other types of clouds:
Mammatus clouds are dark clouds shaped like sagging pouches. These clouds often appear after a tornado.

Orographic clouds are clouds that are formed as moist air rises over mountains or other major geographic features. The air floats up the side of the mountain and cools quickly, condensing and turning into a cloud.

A pileus cloud is a smooth cloud that is found over or on the top of a major geographic feature, like a mountain.

A contrail (short for CONdensation TRAIL) is a cloud-like vapor trail that forms behind some aircraft when flying in cold, clear, humid air. The contrail forms from the water vapor contained in the jet's engine exhaust.

Answer 4

That's a tough one, since clouds are distributed all around the earth.

Answer 5

zillions of lightyears