New cloud type found!!!

Meteorologists believe they have discovered a new classification of cloud after the unique formation has been spotted in skies around the world.

Experts at the Royal Meteorological society are now attempting to have the new cloud type, which has been named "Asperatus" after the Latin word for rough, officially added to the international nomenclature scheme used by forecasters to identify clouds.

If successful, it will be the first variety of cloud to be classified since 1953. The new type of cloud forms a dark, lumpy blanket across the sky and has been sighted in locations all over the world1.

The undulating and lumpy underside, however, is thought to be caused by warm and cold air meeting a the boundary between the lower and middle atmosphere creating a transition effect similar to those seen when oil and vinegar mix.

1. These choppy clouds over Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in an undated picture could be examples of the first new type of cloud to be recognized since 1951.


2.
An "asperatus" cloud rolls over New Zealand's South Island in an undated picture.

This apparently new class of clouds is still a mystery. But experts suspect asperatus clouds' choppy undersides may be due to strong winds disturbing previously stable layers of warm and cold air.


3.

A possibly new variety of cloud, the asperatus, coats the sky in Perthshire, Scotland, in an undated picture.


4.

If the asperatus cloud type is classified as a new variety (above, asperatus clouds over Devon, U.K. in an undated picture), it would be the first addition to the World Meteorological Organization's cloud atlas since 1951.

There are 10 basic cloud forms, or genera, that describe where in the sky they form and their approximate appearance, including stratus, cumulus and cirrus clouds.

The genres are subdivided into cloud species, which describe shape and internal structure, and cloud variety, which describes the transparency and arrangement of clouds.