| 释义 |
nimbostratus Meteorol.|nɪmbəʊˈstrɑːtəs, -ˈstreɪtəs|
[mod.L., f. nimbus + -o + stratus.]
A form of cloud, which usually occurs as a thick, low, extensive layer, which is grey and often dark, and from which rain, sleet, or snow falls (not necessarily reaching the ground) unaccompanied by lightning, hail, or thunder.
Quot. 1887 represents a different sense. The present use appears to have originated independently in 1932, and quot. 1909 is difficult to account for.
1887R. Abercromby Weather iii. 112 Weilbach..gives three varieties [of nimbus]—..and nimbo-stratus, the rain-cloud, in rear of cyclones, which we have designated cumulo-nimbus [i.e. a ‘rocky cumulus cloud from which rain falls in squalls or showers’]. 1909Cent. Dict. Suppl., Nimbo-stratus, same as nimbo-pallium [sc. ‘a broad sheet of cloud from which rain is falling’]. 1932Internat. Atlas Clouds (Internat. Meteorol. Comm.) (abridged ed.) i. 14 In the present Atlas it was intended to give the cloud (a) the new name of Nimbostratus, which is a better name than nimbus for a continuous layer which is formed by evolution from altostratus. 1940W. J. Humphreys Physics of Air (ed. 3) 295 The nimbostratus, formerly called nimbus, is any thick, extensive layer of formless cloud from which rain or snow is falling or seemingly on the point of falling. 1957J. I. M. Stewart Use of Riches i. ii. 23 Charles pointed to the horizon. ‘Nimbostratus. There's going to be rain.’ 1967R. W. Fairbridge Encycl. Atmospheric Sci. & Astrogeol. 687/1 Nimbostratus generally grows out of altostratus, thickening downward. |