Cumulus clouds make beautiful sunsets. These clouds grow on hot days when warm, wet air rises very high into the sky. Up and down winds within the cloud may push water droplets up to very cold parts of the atmosphere, where they freeze. When the ice drops come back down, they get another coating of water and are pushed back up to freeze again. Finally, they get too heavy to stay in the cloud and fall to the Earth as hail stones.
Altocumulus clouds have white or gray patches or layers, and seem to made up of round shapes.
They are lower than cirrus clouds, but still quite high. They are made of liquid water, but seldom make rain. Stratus clouds often look like thin, white sheets covering the whole sky. Since they are so thin, they seldom produce much rain or snow. Sometimes, in the mountains or hills, these clouds appear to be fog.