Why don’t clouds fall out of the sky?
A fluffy cloud can hold hundreds of tonnes of water, yet it floats. The secret is size: cloud droplets are so tiny (about a hundredth of a millimetre across) that they fall very slowly, and rising warm air keeps lifting them back up. The board shows the main kinds of cloud by height. Which ones bring rain?
Asked by calcali
1 answer
Nimbostratus (thick grey sheets with steady rain) and cumulonimbus (tall storm clouds with heavy showers, hail and thunder). “Nimbus” is Latin for rain cloud.
by calcali