Look up into the sky, and you will more than likely see some clouds. Even on nice warm days, you may see clouds floating by.

But what are clouds?

It might not look like it, but clouds are made from water.

They are formed when water in the air cools down and changes from a gas called water vapour into droplets of liquid water - or even tiny ice crystals. This process is called condensation.

These water droplets are big enough to catch the light so we can see them - but so small and light that they don’t just fall down to the ground. Instead they gather together and make clouds.

There are three main types of clouds to look out for:-

Cirrus. These clouds look like thin wispy feathers. They float high up in the sky around 6000 metres - and are made up of tiny pieces of ice.

Cumulus. These are puffy clouds that look like cotton wool or candy floss. They usually float between 300 and 2000 meters in the sky and are the type of clouds that might make shapes!

If you spot cumulus clouds, that often means dry weather, so good for a run around or a bike ride in the park. But watch out. Sometimes cumulus clouds grow very big. When they do that means heavy rain showers – and even thunderstorms!

Stratus. These clouds are often flat and don’t move. On overcast days they stretch across the whole sky like a blanket and they can bring steady drizzle.

Stratus clouds float low down in the sky. In fact, sometimes they are so low down they appear near the ground in the form of fog. If you have ever been outside in fog and felt the damp, then you’ve felt what the inside of a cloud feels like.

We add ‘nimbus’ to the names of clouds to describe them when there is rain or snow falling from them. For example, a cumulonimbus is a dark puffy thunder cloud with rain falling out of it. And a nimbostratus is a dark blanket of cloud with rain.

Next time you’re outside, try and work out which type of clouds you can see... and whether you’ll need an umbrella.