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
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@sstronaut Weight and Density are different properties but related. A square foot of water and air occupy the same space but have vastly different densities. If you boiled that water, the weight would be the same but its density would decrease becoming steam or water vapor. While a cloud has immense weight, its density is very low allowing air pressure to suspend the water from below. Think a boat on water. The take away is that cloud is incredibly large but due to its altitude, our perspective of that is distorted.
@Livingwell I agree that it's huge and I noted they used a cubic kilometer, which is HUGE!
But if you combine that cloud to weigh it, it turns into water (or rain) and it falls.
To my limited knowledge, we don't have an ability to measure a specific cloud while it's in the gas state. We have to judge it by it's solid state... and calculated from there. At least to my limited knowledge.
@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.
