How much water is in a cumulonimbus cloud?

A typical cumulus cloud carries about half-a-gram of water in each cubic metre — that’s the weight of a big garden pea. A big fat dark cumulonimbus cloud could carry up to six times as much water (say, three grams of water per cubic metre).

What happens when clouds are full of condensed water?

Condensation is the process of water vapor turning back into liquid water, with the best example being those big, fluffy clouds floating over your head. And when the water droplets in clouds combine, they become heavy enough to form raindrops to rain down onto your head.

How much water is in all the clouds?

A 1 cubic kilometer (km3) cloud contains 1 billion cubic meters. Doing the math: 1,000,000,000 x 0.5 = 500,000,000 grams of water droplets in our cloud. That is about 500,000 kilograms or 1.1 million pounds (about 551 tons).

What happens when too many water droplets join together and clouds become too heavy?

Condensation and the Water Cycle Condensation is the process of water vapor turning back into liquid water, with the best example being those big, fluffy clouds floating over your head. And when the water droplets in clouds combine, they become heavy enough to form raindrops to rain down onto your head.

How much does a cirrus cloud weigh?

A thin wispy cirrus cloud is 10 times lighter than a cumulus cloud. That comes to about 110 thousand grams of water or a twentieth of gram of water in each cubic meter.

How much water is in a fog?

How much water is in fog? There is typically from 0.05 to 0.5 grams of liquid water in a cubic meter of fog.

What are clouds for kids?

A cloud is made up of liquid water droplets. A cloud forms when air is heated by the sun. As it rises, it slowly cools it reaches the saturation point and water condenses, forming a cloud. As long as the cloud and the air that its made of is warmer than the outside air around it, it floats!

Are all clouds made of water?

While it’s true that clouds contain water, they actually aren’t made of water vapor. It’s only when that water vapor cools and condenses into liquid water droplets or solid ice crystals that visible clouds form.

Do rain clouds run out of water?

After raining all day, why don’t they “run out” of water? Straight off, the answer is that they are constantly resupplying themselves with new moisture and water all the time in the form of rising air. In order for a cloud to form, you need to have rising air.

Does the amount of water in the water cycle change?

When water changes state in the water cycle, the total number of water particles remains the same. The changes of state include melting, sublimation, evaporation, freezing, condensation, and deposition.