☁️ CLOUDS: FORM & MEANING
PAGE 1 OF 5, NOT COTTON: BILLIONS OF DROPLETS
WHAT IS A CLOUD?
SUSPENDED WATER IN PLAIN SIGHT
A cloud is a visible mass of tiny liquid droplets and/or ice crystals hanging in the air, each clinging to a condensation nucleus (dust, salt, pollen, smoke). It is not a gas — the invisible part is the water vapour around the droplets. White or grey? Sunlight scatters off zillions of droplets; when the cloud is thick enough, light cannot punch through, so the base looks dark even on a sunny day.
🧪 SCALE
A small fair-weather puffy can hold hundreds of tonnes of liquid water if you add all those micro-drops — still lighter-than-air as a whole parcel of rising, buoyant air.
FLOAT!
DROPLET
Droplet sizes: mostly tiny, so they float with the wind
ICE
High and cold: crystals & hazy wispy structure