Just like a ceiling in your home, our atmosphere has a ceiling as well. The ceiling refers to the height of the base of the lowest layer of clouds that are mostly overcast.

In other words, what is the height at which a pilot can see through the cloud cover. You will often hear of the term ceiling when you are flying or talking about aviation.

A low ceiling refers to low clouds or fog, and is often too dangerous to fly. A high ceiling or unlimited ceiling refers to mostly clear conditions, which are also safe flying conditions.

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This segment originally appeared in today's edition of the Morning Brief newsletter. Sign up here to get weekday updates from The Weather Channel and our meteorologists.

J​ennifer Gray is a weather and climate writer for weather.com. She has been covering some of the world's biggest weather and climate stories for the last two decades.