Learn how much a cloud weighs

⏱️ 8-12 minutes 📊 Beginner 🔬 Science

About This Idea

Discover the surprising fact that the average cloud weighs around 500 tons! This quick meteorology lesson reveals how water droplets stay suspended in air and why their collective mass is enormous despite their fluffy appearance.

#meteorology#physics#clouds#water#atmosphere

📑 Table of Contents

How to Get Started

STEP 1

THE NUMBERS (3 minutes)

Average cumulus cloud:
- Volume: ~1 cubic kilometer
- Water content: ~500,000 kg (500 tons!)
- That's 500,000 liters of water
- Equivalent to 100 elephants!
- Or 2,500 bathtubs full
But clouds float - how?

STEP 2

WHY CLOUDS FLOAT (4 minutes)

Water droplets are tiny:
- Average: 0.02mm diameter (20 micrometers)
- Smaller than width of human hair
- Millions of droplets per cubic meter
Tiny droplets have huge surface area relative to mass
Air resistance > gravity for tiny particles
Like dust floating in sunlight
Updrafts keep them aloft
Warm air rising holds clouds up

STEP 3

CLOUD TYPES AND WEIGHTS (3 minutes)

Cumulus (puffy): ~500 tons
Stratus (layered): ~1,000 tons
Cumulonimbus (thunderstorm): ~1 million tons!
Largest clouds can hold:
- 1 billion kg of water
- That's 1,000,000 tons!
- Enough to fill 400 Olympic swimming pools

STEP 4

WHEN CLOUDS FALL (2 minutes)

Droplets combine (coalesce)
Get too heavy for air to support
Fall as rain
A single raindrop contains thousands of cloud droplets
Rain is just clouds that got too heavy
This is why:
- Heavy clouds produce rain
- Light clouds stay fluffy
- Clouds 'empty' when they rain

What You'll Need

none

Recommended Resources

📚 Tutorials & Learning

Cloud Weight Calculation 🔗
USGS explanation
Cloud Physics 🔗
Video explanation

👥 Communities

r/weather 🔗
Weather discussion
r/meteorology 🔗
Meteorology community

Progress Milestones

Track your progress with these key achievements:

5 minutes

Understand cloud weight

8 minutes

Learn why clouds float

12 minutes

Grasp cloud physics

Common Challenges & Solutions

Every beginner faces obstacles. Here's how to overcome them:

⚠️ How can 500 tons float?

Solution: Think of it like a million tiny feathers - individually they're light and float, but together they weigh a lot. The key is they're spread out and tiny, so air can support them.

Share Your Progress

Celebrate your achievements and inspire others:

✨ Share this surprising fact
✨ Look at clouds with new appreciation
✨ Explain cloud physics to others

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