Cloud If the air becomes more unstable, the cloud tends to grow vertically into the species "mediocris", then "congestus", the tallest cumulus species which is the same type that the International Civil Aviation Organization refers to as 'towering cumulus'. With highly unstable atmospheric conditions, large cumulus may continue to grow into cumulonimbus "calvus" (essentially a very tall congestus cloud that produces thunder), then ultimately into the species "capillatus" when supercooled water droplets at the top of the cloud turn into ice crystals giving it a cirriform appearance. All cloud varieties fall into one of two main groups. One group identifies the
Cloud describes the occasional arrangements of cloud structures into particular patterns that are discernible by a surface-based observer (cloud fields usually being visible only from a significant altitude above the formations). These varieties are not always present with the genera and species with which they are otherwise associated, but only appear when atmospheric conditions favor their formation. "Intortus" and "vertebratus" varieties occur on occasion with cirrus fibratus. They are respectively filaments twisted into irregular shapes, and those that are arranged in fishbone patterns, usually by uneven wind currents that favor the formation of these varieties. The variety "radiatus" is associated with