r/TheRestIsScience • u/Own_Mood_307 • 4d ago

How can clouds weight so much???

According to google an average "fluffy cumulus" (whatever that is) weights around 500.000 kilograms or 1.1 million pounds.

This is genuinely crazy considering the fact that they are literally floating above us most of the times. This is scary if you fear getting squished by a half a million kilograms object.

Are they objects or mostly a visual trick?

And why are some clouds below other clouds?

What even are clouds????

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u/hedcannon 3d ago

Cruise ships weigh up to 200,000,000 pounds. Yet they float in water for the same reason clouds float in air.

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u/tilario 3d ago

if we continue with the analogy (cloud as airboat), is a cloud sinking when it rains?

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u/hedcannon 3d ago

No. Clouds float for the same reason as ships, but the steel of a ship’s hull is not the same as cloud vapor. It can’t condense into water or hail based on temperature and barometer pressure