These clouds are like. What do clouds look like?

Alexander Semenovich Kushner wrote a wonderful poem "Clouds". And under the impression of his poem, and also in connection with the need to write a sketch for my daughter for a literature lesson on the topic "These clouds look like ...", I wrote a poem that partially echoes the work of A. Kushner mentioned above. You can call it a remake or an interpretation, whatever you like. I do not claim the laurels of the author of the original. I write for pleasure, yours and mine.

Clouds float silently across the sky.

One looks like a big bull.

Another - on a horse in a whitish coat.

And the third one, I don't know what.

Huge, lush waving edges,

As if dancing in front of us.

As if it's not the wind that drives him,

And it plays catch-up with the wind.

Ships are sailing towards us.

On each of them the helmsman is the captain,

Sailed from marvelous, unknown countries.

I would like to stand with him at the helm,

But ... my mother called home from the window.

Anton Colorful

This poem is for personal use only. Its use for commercial purposes is prohibited. Reprinting, posting copies of this poem on the Internet is possible only after the personal consent of the author. The author does not bear any responsibility for the actions that will be performed by the reader after reading this poem, as well as for misinterpreting its content.

You can write an artistic description of the clouds by looking at these essay options.

Probably, each of us likes to watch how water flows, fire burns and ... clouds float in the sky. These air clods every time make you take a break for at least a minute and raise your head up.

A light breeze blows and they appear on a blue background - light, snow-white, funny. Clouds float like waves. When I was little, I thought that it was cotton candy that plays with me, forming various images of animals. What do clouds look like?

It seems to be an ordinary cloud, some elements of water vapor. But if you look closely, you can see a dragon, and an African elephant, and a ship with air sails that carry it to unknown worlds. They are like pieces of something big, mysterious. And they cannot connect, meet. And we will never know what it was from the very beginning.

Clouds are always the messengers of good weather. After all, as you know, after cloudy weather, a bright sun will definitely come out. And when winter comes, the clouds will give us snow. It will cover the white carpet of the roofs of houses, forests, fields. Therefore, clouds play a very important role - they are the basis of moisture in nature. In summer they protect from the scorching sun, and in winter - from hypothermia.

Therefore, if you feel sad or lonely, just take a break from problems, raise your head, look at the clouds, the sky and dream. Imagine around you a fairy tale with knights and princesses. Don't be shy, we are all children at heart.

How can clouds be described?

I love to look at the sky and the clouds, which look so much like big castles in the air. Unusual fabulous creatures live in these castles. For example, unicorns, dragons, elves and pegasi. And you can also see different animals: crocodiles, sheep, horses, small tiger cubs and lion cubs. You might think that there is a whole, air castle-zoo in the sky.

I like to watch the clouds - it's so interesting!!!

Description of the sky essay

My favourite hobby- look out the open window and observe a variety of clouds. And now, I opened the window and admire the picture of an impending thunderstorm. heavy, thunderclouds condense on the horizon. They are dark dark grey. A few more small light gray clouds are visible in the distance, moving away quickly, quickly due to a strong gusty wind. Thunder rolls are heard, and here is lightning, illuminating the lush clouds with a purple hue. It started to rain. The clouds became almost black in color, they began to chase each other like shadows, running away beyond the horizon. Good thing the storm didn't last long. Here the first rays of the sun appeared through the clouds. Each cloud becomes lighter and lighter, letting in more and more sun rays. The clouds are becoming lighter and more delicate, some of them resemble funny, outlandish little animals. Another hour passed and the clouds seemed to dissolve into the blue of the sky.

Goals:

• repeat figurative ideas about the shape and color of clouds;
• develop children's pictorial speech and observation;
• develop the ability to build sentences;
• to teach to use artistic means known to children in a specific situation, namely to create their own comparisons, epithets;
• compose a text-description on a given topic;
• develop the imagination of students based on their personal experience;
• develop a sense of beauty.

Equipment: illustrations of clouds, models of cloudiness, wind, cards with a poem.

During the classes

1. Organizational moment.

We are smart!
We are friendly!
We are careful!
We are great at learning!
Everything will work out for us!

2. Actualization of knowledge.

How much light, how much sun
And the skies turn blue.
It comes to visit us
The long-awaited ... (spring).
A. Kochergina

Spring is coming, so I want to be more on the street and watch the streams, green grass, the first flowers. It's also interesting to watch...

Guess the riddles and you will find out what we will be watching today.

Milk spilled high in the blue.
Sprawled cotton wool white-bluish. (Cloud)

They fly without wings
They run without legs, they swim without a sail. (Cloud)

What do you think is the topic of today's lesson? What will be discussed in the lesson?

Clouds travel through the sky day and night. Over forests and fields, over seas and oceans, these eternal wanderers float, obeying the wind.

– What are clouds? What do you know about clouds?

Clouds are water that has evaporated - turned into steam - from the seas, oceans and from the surface of the earth. Light steam rose high into the sky and turned into a small cloud. It floats above the ground, merges with other clouds, collects water vapor and turns it into raindrops. As the cloud grows, the wind will carry it away from where it originated.

Clouds
Clouds, clouds, lush, white,
Tell the clouds, what were you made of?
Maybe you clouds were made of milk?
Maybe chalk? Maybe cotton?
Maybe from white crumpled paper?

"Never! Never! The clouds answered
Never made us out of milk
Never chalk, never cotton.
Never from white from crumpled paper.

We are rain, we are snow.
If we sail in the summer
We carry the storm with us
If we sail in winter
We carry the blizzard with us
Here we are!” (I. Maznin)

Clouds are an important nature-forming factor. They affect both precipitation patterns and temperature regime on the ground.

- Open the diary of observations in workbook around the world and note what the weather is today: cloudiness, precipitation, wind strength, temperature. Show cloudiness on the model:

What mistake is made in the image of clouds? (In the second image, the half should be black)

3. Vocabulary work.

– Where did the word come from cloud?

The word is derived from "cloud" (that which envelops).

The word "cloud" is a dictionary word, you need to remember its spelling. Form single-root words and highlight the root.

Cloudy, cloudy, cloudy, cloudy, cloudy, cloudless, subcloudy.

Helper words for memorization .

L BUT skovoe region BUT to the fluffy animal
swims, plays in the golden sky.

Region a as they float across the sky
Region a they shine a little a.
Someone seems to be white varnish ohm
Covers about varnish a!
For about la watch kami,
Syllable - LA- don't forget to write.

How do you understand the expression hover in the clouds?

Soar in the clouds - indulge in dreams, fantasies, not noticing the environment.

4. Repetition of the studied material in the lessons of the world around.

– What are clouds? (Clouds are different.)

What color are clouds at sunrise and sunset? (Clouds are black and white, gray and blue, pink and scarlet, yellow or gold, purple or purple, and sometimes pale green). Showing photos.

What determines the color of clouds? (The color of the clouds depends on the density of the clouds and their illumination by the Sun.)

Why are they called skywalkers? (Clouds, at the behest of the winds, can float across the sky in one direction or the other, until they fall to the ground as rain or snow).

Clouds are not similar to each other and are called differently. Remember how? (Cirrus, stratus, cumulus). (Drawings of clouds)

Student 1. Cirrus clouds are the tallest and thinnest. They swim very high above the ground, where it is always cold. The vapor droplets in them turned into ice crystals. These are beautiful cold clouds. The blue sky shines through them. They have the most various forms: in the form of thin translucent stripes, curls, knotted dots, tongues of flame, similar to the long feathers of fabulous birds. Therefore they are called pinnate. They are located at an altitude of 6-10 kilometers.

Sometimes the tops of the clouds reach a height of 20-125 kilometers above the Earth. Formed at high altitude mother-of-pearl and silvery clouds, consisting only of ice crystals.

Student 2. stratus clouds- solid, pale gray. They cover the sky with a monotonous gray veil. Such clouds bring bad weather: snow, drizzling rain for several days. They are located at an altitude of 50 to 2000m.

Student 3. Rain cumulus clouds are large and dark. They run after each other like a race. Sometimes the wind carries them so low that it seems like the clouds touch the roofs.

Student 4. Rare cumulus clouds are the most beautiful. These clouds are located at an altitude of 3-5 km. They resemble steep mountains with dazzling white peaks illuminated by the sun. It is interesting to watch them: cheerful cumulus clouds run across the sky, constantly changing. They look like animals, people, some fabulous creatures - everything that your fantasy tells you.

If you carefully observe the clouds, you can learn to predict the weather. What do you know about clouds?

Signs.

• White clouds do not wet the ground.
• Clouds float high - to good weather.
• Blue evening clouds - to change the weather.
• Cirrus clouds - to the bucket.
• Cumulus clouds are harbingers of good weather.
• Cumulus clouds torn to tatters - to bad weather and wind.
• If cumulus clouds come from the west - this is bad weather.
• Layered clouds, as a rule, to bad weather.
• Red clouds before sunrise - to the wind.
• At sunset, clouds ringlets - to the rain.
• Wavy clouds - bad weather.
• Clouds go low - there will be a cold.
• Clouds go against the wind towards the snow.

- Answer the question.

- The cloud can not be, what? Answer options are provided. a) cumulus; b) layered; c) bushy; d) feathery.

5. Formation of new knowledge.

– Pay attention to the sky, remember how it is in different time days at different times of the year. Dream up!

Have you ever watched clouds? What can you compare clouds or clouds floating across the sky.

– See how the artists represent the clouds.

What clouds did the artists depict? (cumulus)

– Does the shape of the clouds change rapidly? (The stronger the wind blows, the faster the clouds change their shape.)

What do clouds look like...

What type of clouds do you think the riddle is talking about:

An invisible shepherd chases white sheep.

What else can clouds be compared to?

Listen to how poets depict clouds. What are they compared to?

***
The clouds have set their sails,
White rooks sent their run into the swell of heaven.
Quiet, smooth, effortless
In the distance, without shores
A friendly flotilla came out
Fairy swimmers. (V. Bryusov)

***
They float above me
One after another clouds.
Well well! How many there are!
They float like a wave.
It's like a rhinoceros
It's like a boar
I count five sheep

What illustration does this poem fit?

Read the poem by Yakov Akim. Think about the image the poet has chosen for the heavenly miracle. Try to find words that rhyme with last words. Feel like poets, creators of beauty.

Clouds

Cloud after cloud chased across the sky -
Behind the cloud-boat, the cloud is __________ (moose).

The moose walks quickly, does not want to fall behind,
But __________ cannot reach the boat with its horns.

And the wind drives, drives, hurries the clouds,
It will touch from a raid, then move __________ (slightly).

The boat became smaller, the elk stretched out ...
And from the elk a cloud suddenly __________ (broke off).

Where is the jumping moose? Forget about it!
The cloud turned into a galloping __________ (horse).

And the wind rose stronger, stronger,
And they grew up by the boat __________ (sails).

I'm lying by the river, I look from under my arm,
And they run over me in the sky __________ (clouds) (Y. Akim)

- Read the poem by I. Konevsky, underline the words that the poet uses to depict clouds.

Here, seasides, seas, islands
The sky, like the whole world, above me
Along its expanses, above the trees
The herd is worn crazy.
Snow-white scattered manes,
Swimming across the blue lakes.
The wind drives them, their zealous driver,
To distant cloudy mountains.
And from the ground the feather grass brings a wide noise,
Pine trunks rush -
And all in the same region the dashing herd carries away,
To the edge where the white billows soar. (I. Konevsky)

***
Different animals run across the sky:
Bears, wolves, hares, foxes, pigs.
Snow cliffs float across the sky
And even ships with sailors on them.
And if you are rich in fantasy,
Find your portrait there, guys. (N. Gugnyar)

What illustration fits this poem?

Reading passages from exercise 535. Imagine some pictures drawn by the writers.

They slowly float across the spring sky like a flock of snow-white birds.

Spring clouds are like ships under white sails. The wind will inflate them, and they will float ... (According to G. Skrebitsky)

Clouds, clouds -
curly sides,
curly clouds,
whole, perforated,
light, airy,
obedient to the wind.
According to S. Mikhalkov

Clouds floated across the sky.
Clouds four things:
From the first to the third -
people,
The fourth is a camel.
According to V. Mayakovsky

Write down the part that you liked the most.

6. Fizkultminutka.

The song "Clouds" sounds (dance movements are performed to the music)

Past the white apple of the moon
Past the red apple of the sunset
Clouds from an unknown land
They rush to us and again run somewhere.

Chorus:
Clouds, white-maned horses,
Clouds, why are you rushing without looking back?
Don't look down please
And roll us across the sky, clouds!


We will rush into the sky-high distance
Past the fading stars in the sky.
A star will fall silently to us
And chamomile will remain in the palm of your hand.

7. Independent work. Etude composition.

Etude- a short essay about nature, its feelings; a sketch, which is built on highlighting some interesting, unusual feature of the described object or phenomenon. An important feature of the study: incompleteness; it may be part of another work.

- And now sit back, turn on your imagination, imagine that on a warm spring day you came to the shore of a river or lake. A light breeze is blowing, light, playful fantastic clouds are floating above you.

Try to describe all the pictures that have arisen. For those who find it difficult, use the hints given in exercise 536.

Here it floats in the sky .... But … . A little bit farther … . But soon... not anymore. The cloud looks like... It seems like…. ... as if ... .

The next stage may be the stage of reading students' sketches in the class (at the request of the children acting as authors of the compositions). Each work is evaluated by students in accordance with the given features of the genre. In addition, the criteria for evaluating creative work are mandatory:

• originality in the disclosure of the topic;
• the ability to create an interesting image;
• the unusualness of the author's language.

Examples of children's work.

White, fluffy clouds float across the sky. Among them is a fiery red Firebird, White Rabbit, gold fish and a white-maned horse and many other fabulous animals. Blimey!
Xenia K.

These clouds are like huge white ships. They float on blue sky no one knows where. Where are they sailing to? And these white clouds-ships are sailing to a fairy-tale land.
Here they can turn into anyone. Sometimes they look like fluffy pillows, then they suddenly turn into polar bear. But suddenly he blew strong wind and they turned into a white horse.
And these clouds-ships float and float into the endless distance.
Misha D.

These clouds are like unknown creatures flying somewhere. But then they disappeared, but a little bit, a minute later they reappeared. What a miracle Clouds are not just descending water vapor! These are wonderful inhabitants of the air. We look at them, and the heart rejoices and the soul is eager to follow ...
Alina N.

I love looking at clouds. They look like lions, elephants and other animals, and sometimes they look like flocks of birds.
Alexey D.

These clouds are like fluffy little white kitten enthusiastically playing ball. But then a breeze blew, and now the kitten has turned into a poodle puppy, and the ball into a bone. Another cloud looks like a fabulously beautiful horse, and the third one resembles a bouquet of cheerful fragrant daisies.
Ilya D.

8. Homework.

On the way home, look at the sky, watch the clouds and create your own drawings with colors and words.

9. Reflection.

What do you like and remember the most?

What did you have difficulty with?

Literature.

1. Matveeva E.I. Literary reading. We teach younger students to write compositions of different genres. Moscow, Eksmo, 2007.
2. Nuzhdina T.D. Encyclopedia for kids "Miracle everywhere". Yaroslavl, "Academy of Development", 1998.
3. Poglazova O.T. Guidelines to the textbook "The world around" for grade 2. Smolensk, "Association of the XXI century", 2007.
4. Poglazova O.T. Workbooks for the textbook "The world around us" for grade 3, part 2. Smolensk, "Association XXI century", 2007.
5. Soloveichik M.S. Russian language textbook "To the secrets of our language" for grade 3, part 2.
6. Smolensk, "Association XXI century", 2007.
7. Soloveichik M.S. Guidelines for the Russian language textbook "To the secrets of our language" for grade 3. Smolensk, "Association XXI century", 2007.

Composition-study "These clouds look like ..."

These clouds look like clouds of white birds. There are millions of them and they scatter in different sides. They flap their white wings and you know they're about to fly away. You will never see them again. Those clouds seemed like the most beautiful thing you ever had. (Filippova Polina)

These clouds look like bright lush marshmallows. They also look like a rabbit, like a dog. The clouds are soft and beautiful. Everyone sees what they want. Clouds float, float, not knowing where. Does anyone know where the clouds are going? (Ulyanova Snezhana)

I was lying in a clearing and suddenly... A cloud similar to a boot appeared in front of me. Then a cloud appeared in the form of a fish. I saw a cloud that looked like a dove. I thought: what if I draw them... I ran for paper. When I arrived, suddenly a strong wind blew and the clouds scattered. (Mikheikin Daniel)

These clouds look like flying fluff. That's very beautiful. But suddenly one cloud came to life. And another cloud came to life. Suddenly they collided with their white barrels and scattered in different directions. (Mikheikin Daniel)

Pclouds floated across the sky. These clouds are like light air balls. It's because they played and they had fun. Soon they became like funny animals. The animals began to play hide and seek, and they hid behind huge gray clouds. (Shulgina Alice)

I woke up in the morning, went down to the 1st floor of my house. I had breakfast and went to the meadow. She lay down on the grass and looked up at the sky. I saw clouds and I felt funny. They seemed to me soft, airy lumps of snow, bluish-pink in color. (Koshkina Lisa)

As a child, when I was little, I rode home with my mother at sunset. I looked at the clouds. These clouds at sunset looked like pink elephants and pink bears. then, when I went to bed and my mother too, I got up and went to look out the window. The last clouds with stars looked like fish with shiny scales. But the biggest cloud looked like a huge whale with diamond eyes. I looked at this extraordinary ocean for a long time. (Chepurko Nile)

The sun rose early outside. These clouds look like morning fluffs of cotton wool. One cloud looks like a deer and the other looks like a bee. But the most beautiful, which are similar to various fish. These are the most beautiful clouds I have ever seen. (Skopintseva Sasha)

It was summer. I woke up early in the morning and saw clouds. They looked like many fluffy pinkish rabbits. They floated across the sky. Like birds in flight. It was the most wonderful feeling. (Knyazeva Nastya)

These clouds look like fluffy birds with white azure wings. And there are a million such fluffy birds. Next came pink, blue, red birds. Night fell and the fluffy birds never appeared again. (Morozova Nastya)

Clouds are like everything around us. They can look like animals, houses, flowers, people and more. Everything depends on your imagination. I like looking at the clouds. It is so beautiful! I can always see my favorite animal. I want to have it next to me! (Tyrnova Liza)

I woke up early in the morning, and when I saw the clouds, I thought: these clouds look like little animals. I got dressed and ran outside. I looked at the sky and saw: at first the clouds played catch-up, then they danced around the sun, and then they decided to rest. While the clouds were running, they turned red, but after resting they turned white again. And when the breeze blew, they flew far, far away. (Timofeev Dima)

I woke up early in the morning and saw the sunrise. The sunrise was beautiful, but it wouldn't be so beautiful if it wasn't for the clouds. They reflected the rays of the sun and were so red and interesting. These clouds are like an airplane or a fish, a ship, a dolphin, or a bird. At first they are small and do not look like anything. Then you can see anything in them. Then they become so big that they look like palaces, like castles. (Nikonov Danil)

Clouds "Mammatus clouds".
A rare type of cloud was filmed in 2004 over Nebraska (photo by Jorn C. Olsen).
The clouds were so named because of their shape, reminiscent of pendulous pouches in the form of mammary glands (like the udder of a cow).
Mammatus are always associated with lightning storms and therefore with cumulonimbus clouds.
Clouds remain in the sky from several minutes to several hours, depending on the size of the droplets.

For the formation of mammatus, the neighborhood of a moist and unstable stratified air mass in middle and upper parts troposphere over a dry air mass.
Under such conditions, a system of small ascending and descending air currents arises under the descending ice crystals of the "anvils" of cumulonimbus clouds against the background of a general downward air flow. These streams lead to the formation of the characteristic form of clouds.


Lenticular (lenticular) clouds.
People who like to connect previously unseen and incomprehensible natural phenomena with proof of the presence of aliens on our planet, they are often called UFOs.


There are also "Lenticularis" - lenticular cumulus clouds.
This type of cloud can also be mistaken for some unidentified flying object. But this "object" does not fly, and does not move at all. These clouds remain still, no matter how strong the wind is.


Lenticular clouds very often serve as certain signs of worsening weather.
Their appearance indicates that there are strong horizontal air currents in the atmosphere, forming waves over mountainous obstacles, that the air has a rather high moisture content. This is usually associated with the approach atmospheric front or with vigorous transport of air from distant regions, from the south or from the north. The inhabitants of the mountains and arctic regions are well aware of these "weather forecasters."


Antique clouds. Looks like old canvases.
it unusual phenomenon photographed December 11, 2003 by Alabama resident Joel Knain. Scientists believe that the whole thing is in the ice crystals formed as a result of the emission of a flying plane (photo by Joel Knain from the NASA website).

These unusual clouds similar to the “gateway to heaven”, an amazing and strange hole in the sky.


Cigar cloud.
British fishermen fishing in the English Channel felt like characters in the horror movie "The Fog" when a huge cigar-shaped cloud suddenly rolled over them from nowhere.
For almost 30 minutes, their ship "Jimini" was shrouded in thick mist like jelly in an eerie silence. It happened 30 miles from Dartmouth (Devon).


Asperatus - swirling cumulus clouds.
A slightly different kind of thunderclouds are complex swirls of air currents, and also portend the possible occurrence of a tornado.


Meteorologists say they have never seen anything like it before. These clouds look like either a stormy sea or the surface of the earth. They are dark with bizarre swirls. Pictures of such clouds come from all over the world.


Polar stratospheric ("mother-of-pearl") clouds Nacreous.
These clouds, unlike their tropospheric counterparts that we can see in the sky every day, form at altitudes of 15 to 25 km in cold regions of the stratosphere (temperatures below -78 °). And they rarely show up.


Mother-of-pearl clouds, if we are lucky, we can observe either in the evening immediately after sunset, or shortly before the appearance of the daylight. Usually they are fully illuminated by the Sun within 20 minutes after sunset or before sunrise. These light and transparent clouds cannot be confused with anything


The air in the stratosphere is very dry, so clouds usually do not form in it. But in winter period the temperature of the stratosphere sometimes drops to such values ​​that clouds still begin to form in it.


"Pileus" - "Cap" on top of a cumulus cloud.
This "cap" is a cloud of vertical development, called a pileus, which can be translated from Latin as a small light cap. "Pileus" usually form over cumulus and cumulonimbus clouds and are formed due to the rise of dry air at higher altitudes, which has a higher level of condensation than the underlying humid air in a cumulus or cumulonimbus cloud. Therefore, the pileus looks like a "hood" or "cap" over cumulus cloud rapidly changing its shape.


By the presence of pileus, one can judge that strong ascending air currents have formed in the convection clouds, which are capable of forming cumulonimbus clouds. Thus, "pileuses" can be considered indicators of an imminent thunderstorm. Although everything can end with the formation of separate clusters of cumulonimbus clouds, which will shed only local thunderstorms


Silver clouds.
Noctilucent clouds were first reported in 1885 after the Krakatoa eruption. It is also a very rare atmospheric phenomenon and has only been observed in deep twilight, only in summer, and at latitudes between 50 and 60 degrees north and south.


You can see them when they are illuminated by the sun from behind the horizon, and the lower layers of the atmosphere are in the earth's shadow, they cannot be seen during the day. The clouds are so thin that stars can often be seen through them. There is an assumption that these clouds are just an optical effect, something like a mirage.


Funnel cloud
Tubular clouds are cone-shaped and are most commonly seen during thunderstorms. Outwardly, they look like tornadoes, but until they touch the surface of water or land, they do not turn into tornadoes.


Everything changes when, during a thunderstorm, the base of this cumulonimbus cloud touches the surface of water or land - from a beautiful atmospheric phenomenon it turns into a dangerous one: a swift funnel-shaped whirlwind stretches to a height of 1.5 kilometers.


Inside the funnel, the air rises, creating a vacuum. The tornado sweeps over the surface at a speed of 30-60 km/h and after about 30 km loses its destructive power. There are cases when tornadoes survived for 500 km.

Clouds "Morning Glory"
These are the only clouds that have a proper name. "Morning Glory" is like a rolling cloud up to 1000 km long, 1-2 km high, moving at a speed of up to 40 km/h.


These clouds arise mainly off the coast of Australia, in places with high humidity and increased atmospheric pressure. The sun heats up the front of the cloud and in it there is an upward movement of air, which twists the cloud. Imagine a powerful wave that has a single crest and moves without changing speed or shape - this is what this cloud looks like.


Clouds "Ac virga"
"Ac virga" are altocumulus clouds with falling streaks. Such a cloud is located at a height of about 4 km, its thickness is about half a kilometer, and the column of precipitation (fall bands) hangs down about one and a half to two kilometers.


Fall streaks are not ordinary rain, but rain that falls in separate cloud zones, these fibrous streaks do not exist on their own, but are directed downward from a dense parent cloud. Although the "Ac virga" clouds rise quite high, they are quite transparent and a bit romantic.


Concave clouds (Shelf clouds)
Concave clouds are usually seen before a thunderstorm, although they can also precede any well-defined front of relatively cold air. Concave clouds are always associated with a larger cloud system hidden at the top.


A concave cloud descends towards one side of the thunderstorm. In this case, the falloff decreases away from the rain region, and not back into the rain region. It is this decline that characterizes the shelf cloud. As cold air"pushed" out of the precipitation area by descending air currents, warm air slides over the gusty front, forming concave shelf-clouds.


circumhorizontal arc.
This phenomenon is also known as a "fire rainbow". Created in the sky when light is refracted through ice crystals in cirrus clouds. This phenomenon is very rare, since both the ice crystals and the sun must stand exactly in a horizontal line for such a spectacular refraction to occur. This particularly good example was captured in the sky over Spokane in Washington DC in 2006.