STRATUS

Gemerally grey cloud layer with a fairly uniform base, which may give drizzle, ice prisms or snow grains. When the sun is visible through through the cloud, its outline is clearly discernalble. Stratus does not produce halo phenomenon except, possibly, at very low temperatures. Sometimes stratus appears on the form of ragged patches.

WMO (1957) International Cloud Atlas, as cited in H. R. Byers (1974) General Meteorology