nimbostratusn.

1880 W. C. Ley in Nature 1 Jan. 210/2 If Nimbus is to be retained, it might be subdivided into its two essentially distinct varieties, the massive local shower-cloud, and the extensive bank of composite rain-cloud; and for these varieties the titles cumulo-nimbus and strato-nimbus, or some equivalent expressions, might come into use.]

1887 R. Abercromby Weather iii. 112 Weilbach..gives three varieties [of nimbus]—nimbo-pallium..; nubeculae or scud; and nimbo-stratus, the rain-cloud, in rear of cyclones, which we have designated cumulo-nimbus.

1896 H. H. Clayton in Ann. Astron. Observatory Harvard Coll. 30 iv. 289 The cloud from which rain falls is divided by Weilbach into nimbo-pallium and nimbo-stratus.

1909 Cent. Dict. Suppl. Nimbo-stratus, same as nimbo-pallium.

1932 Internat. 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.

1940 W. 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.

1957 J. I. M. Stewart Use of Riches i. ii. 23 Charles pointed to the horizon. ‘Nimbostratus. There's going to be rain.’

1967 R. W. Fairbridge Encycl. Atmospheric Sci. & Astrogeol. 687/1 Nimbostratus generally grows out of altostratus, thickening downward.

1991 D. Means Quick Kiss for Redempt. 47 I'm off the ground, cutting into the nimbostratus, breaking out over the flat skillet of sky into the afternoon blaze of sun tucked in the sky.