The Eastern Escarpment, with Dullstroom most centrally situated, boasts the most impressive cloud formations.

Blue skies and white clouds at Treeferns.

Clouds are one of the most fascinating phenomena of God’s Creation.  What are clouds really ?

From ground level, a cloud is visible to the eye as a compressed mass of droplets or even frozen crystals suspended in the atmosphere above the surface. The droplets are formed by the evaporation of moisture from the ground condensing  in the air. When billions of droplets gather together or surround each other, the become visible as clouds. Clouds reflect sunrays and thus appear white from the top. Depending on the  radiation of sun light they also become gray or even black as in thunder clouds. During sunrise and sunset clouds are illuminated by so-called  non-white light and therefore reflect the most beautiful colours.

Clouds are classified into four main types : cumulus, stratus, cirrus, and nimbus, the most familiar one being the cumulus or thunder clouds also called vertical clouds. The specific type depends on the height of the cloud, viz. high-level, mid-level, low-level.

Mostly clouds are accompanied by precipitation, i.e. rain, snow, hail,  or sleet depending on weather conditions like air pressure, wind, temperature, etc.

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