A cloud weighs about 550 tonnes!

Look from an airplane and the clouds seem as light as a feather. Yet, brace yourselves for a sky-high revelation – the water droplets and ice crystals inside an average cumulus cloud weigh a staggering 550 tonnes! That’s the weight equivalent of a herd of 100 African elephants! So, how do these cloud giants manage to stay afloat?

The Dance of Tiny Droplets: Picture a cumulus cloud as a lump weighing 550 tonnes – it would surely crash down with a thud. Why don’t they just drop down from the sky? The cosmic secret: clouds aren’t solid; they’re composed of millions of minute droplets, each about 100th the width of an average raindrop. These tiny droplets do fall, but their minuscule size means their journey is more like a leisurely stroll than a plummet.

Terminal Velocity Ballet: Falling at a leisurely pace, these cloud droplets have a terminal velocity of around 900cm per hour. To put it into perspective, it would take them more than 12 days to descend from the typical cumulus cloud altitude of 2,700m (8,850ft) in calm conditions. That’s a slow, gentle descent through the celestial realms.

Updrafts and Cloud Choreography: Clouds don’t dance solo – they twirl in updrafts where warm air rises. This uplifting force, several metres per second for a typical cumulus cloud, is like a cosmic ballet, keeping most small droplets gracefully suspended. It’s this dance between the rising warm air and the descent of droplets that paints the skies with the mesmerising shapes and textures we adore.

Cirrus Whispers and Rain’s Crescendo: Sometimes, heavier ice crystals decide to make a grand entrance, creating wispy cirrus clouds. And when tiny water droplets join forces, they form a water symphony, eventually becoming raindrops that perform a rhythmic descent.

So, the next time you gaze at clouds, envision the cosmic ballet above, where tiny droplets pirouette in the vast theater of the sky, creating a spectacle that’s both ethereal and weighty!