Stratus cloud classified as pannus clouds. Stratus only has one mutatus mother cloud. Stratus stratocumulomutatus clouds occur when stratocumulus opacus patches fuse to create a stratiform layer. Stratus clouds don't produce accessory clouds, but a supplementary feature praecipitatio is derived from Latin, which means "precipitation". Stratus clouds are too low to produce virga, or rain shears that evaporate before reaching the ground. A stratus cloud can form from stratocumulus spreading out under an inversion, indicating a continuation of prolonged cloudy weather with drizzle for several hours and then an improvement as it breaks into stratocumulus. Stratus clouds can persist for days in
Cloud forest 10,000 mm/year and mean temperature between 8 and 20 °C. While cloud forest today is the most widely used term, in some regions, these ecosystems or special types of cloud forests are called mossy forest, elfin forest, montane thicket, and dwarf cloud forest. The definition of cloud forest can be ambiguous, with many countries not using the term (preferring such terms as Afromontane forest and upper montane rain forest, montane laurel forest, or more localised terms such as the Bolivian "yungas", and the "laurisilva" of the Atlantic Islands), and occasionally subtropical and even temperate forests in which similar meteorological conditions