Ceiling is defined as the height above the earth's surface of what?

• A. The height of the lowest broken or overcast cloud layer above the surface.
• B. The maximum cruising altitude.
• C. The depth of the atmosphere.
• D. The altitude where the air becomes too thin to fly.

Answer: (A)

Ceiling is the height above the Earth's surface of the lowest cloud layer that is broken or overcast, or the vertical visibility into an obscuring layer. This weather metric tells you how far you can see the sky beneath a cloud deck and is used for flight planning and IFR/VFR decisions. It isn’t the aircraft’s maximum cruising altitude, nor the overall depth of the atmosphere, and it isn’t the altitude where air becomes too thin to fly. When you hear a reported ceiling, think of the base of the lowest cloud layer that covers the sky enough to obscure clear sky below. If the lowest base is at 3,000 feet AGL, the ceiling is 3,000 feet.