Construct · 1 fields · 3 citations

nimbus: a standalone construct

One name. One construct. A landmark on the map.

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nimbus1 CONSTRUCTNimbus cloudHOWARD · RAIN CLOUD

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Meteorology

The rain-bearing cloud category

Luke Howard's 1803 essay On the modifications of clouds gave clouds their now-standard Latin names and set nimbus apart as the rain cloud, the dense, dark cloud from which precipitation actually falls, distinct from the fair-weather forms he called cirrus, cumulus, and stratus. In the modern World Meteorological Organization classification the standalone genus nimbus has been retired, and its rain-bearing role is carried by two of the ten cloud genera: nimbostratus, the thick, layered cloud that yields steady rain or snow, and cumulonimbus, the towering storm cloud that produces heavy showers, hail, and lightning, so the Latin root nimb- now marks a cloud that precipitates. The same word nimbus carries a wholly separate meaning in art history, the radiant disc drawn around the head of a holy figure, mapped as the second field on this page.[1][2][3]

Unit
A named cloud category defined by its form and its precipitation, one of the recognised cloud genera
Recovery means
Not applicable
Measured by
Identified by trained visual observation against the WMO cloud genera and corroborated by satellite and weather-radar imagery

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Nearby constructs

halo3 fields · 5 citationsjingle · one word, three constructscloud4 fields · 5 citationsjingle · one word, four constructsaureole2 fields · 3 citationsjingle · one word, two constructsglory1 fields · 1 citationsanchor · a standalone construct

References

  1. Howard, L. (1803). On the modifications of clouds, and on the principles of their production, suspension, and destruction. The Philosophical Magazine, 16(62), 97–107. https://doi.org/10.1080/14786440308676310
  2. World Meteorological Organization. (2017). International cloud atlas: Manual on the observation of clouds and other meteors (WMO-No. 407). World Meteorological Organization.
  3. Houze, R. A. (1997). Stratiform precipitation in regions of convection: A meteorological paradox? Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 78(10), 2179–2196. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0477(1997)078<2179:SPIROC>2.0.CO;2

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