Plain English Meaning

A high, thin cloud layer that looks like small white ripples or tiny puffs spread across the sky, almost like fish scales.

Full Definition

A high-altitude cloud type, typically forming between 16,000 and 45,000 feet, made up of small white patches or rippled layers of tiny cloud elements. Cirrocumulus clouds are composed mostly of ice crystals, with some supercooled water droplets, and often appear as a fine, grainy pattern across the sky sometimes called a 'mackerel sky.'

Context Anchor

Pilots encounter cirrocumulus in weather study, preflight weather observations, and visual cloud identification while scanning the sky.

Derivation

From Latin 'cirrus' meaning 'curl' or 'wisp' (the high, wispy cloud family) and '' meaning 'heap' or 'pile.' Together it describes a high cloud made of small heaped or rippled elements -- a 'wispy heap' high in the .