photo #7207994

As a huge Cumulonimbus storm cloud dissipates away, it can sometimes leave behind the broad canopy of ice crystals, known as an incus (Latin for an ‘anvil’), that had formed its spreading top. Fiorella Iacono (Cloud Appreciation Society Member 9,702) spotted over Golfo del Tigullio, Portofino, Italy just such a plume of thick high cloud. Adrift of the once-towering storm that created it, this canopy would now be known as a Cirrus spissatus cloud. It is a dense form of the usually ethereal Cirrus cloud that takes its name from the Latin word for ‘thickened’ and can cover a broad stretch of sky like a heavy grey blanket. Though thickened Cirrus like this can form in other ways, one that’s left behind by a dying Cumulonimbus would officially be known as (deep breath) Cirrus spissatus cumulonimbogenitus – an icy mouthful of a name for a once-mighty storm.