Amazing Facts : A Cloud Can Weigh More Than a Million Pounds
The Surprising Science Behind How a Cloud Can Weigh More Than a Million Pounds
Have you ever taken some time to admire a puffy cloud and imagined how light and airy it must feel? Those clouds can weigh over a million pounds! Perhaps it is hard to believe some cumulus clouds are heavier than a fully loaded jumbo jet.
What Are Clouds Made Of?
Before we talk about how clouds can weigh this much, we should clear one thing. Clouds are made of ice crystals and tiny water droplets, not smoke or air. When warm air rises and cools down, the air’s moisture condenses to form little droplets. Each droplet is light, but when you consider the billions of droplets packed into a cloud, it becomes significant.
The National Center For Atmospheric Research and the US Geological Survey estimate that the average cumulus cloud weighs about 500,000 kilograms, or a little over 1.1 million pounds. That is the equivalent weight of 100 plus elephants!
Why Don’t Clouds Fall If They’re So Heavy?
What prevents heavy clouds from plummeting straight down? It is all about the clouds’ construction. The droplets are minuscule, scattered over a large swath, and light enough to be suspended by the warm, upward flowing air, or updrafts. The condition of being supported by warm air remains, even if the suspended clouds are laden with moisture.
If you have been in a room with mist and a breeze, you have a sense of how the droplets in the mist behave. They float and move with the air instead of falling to the ground.
When Clouds Get Too Heavy
The small droplets will eventually combine to form large droplets. When the large droplets become heavy enough that the updrafts can no longer provide lift, the droplets will fall and rain will begin. This is the natural, effortless way for clouds to relieve their excess moisture.
Final Thought
There are amazing facts about clouds, the most astonishing being that a single, fluffy cloud can weigh a million pounds. The next time you look up at the sky, let your imagination fly.
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