Did you know: an average cumulus cloud can weigh around 1.1 million pounds (about 551 tons) within a single cubic kilometer
an average cumulus cloud, a typical fluffy cloud seen on sunny days, can weigh around 1.1 million pounds (about 551 tons) within a single cubic kilometer, according to some scientific resources. This weight is due to the billions of water droplets and ice crystals suspended within the cloud. Despite this immense weight, clouds float because the air around and beneath them is denser, creating buoyancy
It is perhaps easier to comprehend if you realise that effectively, it is not the cloud that is floating but each and every microscopic droplet floating on its own in company with all the others.
It is a heck of a lot water, too. If my arithmetic is correct, just 1mm of rain gives 1000m^3 of water per square kilometre - weighing 1000 tonnes.
@sstronaut We can easily weigh gasses, water vapor, etc. From there we can determine it's volume at the specific altitude pressure and we then calculate its weight. When temperature changes (cools) the water vapor cools and becomes larger droplets until it drops as rain.
@sstronaut It works because a cloud is a mass of tiny droplets all floating individually. It is only when they start to coalesce into large drops that they gain mass, lose bouyancy and fall as rain.
