How heavy is the heaviest cloud?

That is about 500,000 kilograms or 1.1 million pounds (about 551 tons). But, that "heavy" cloud is floating over your head because the air below it is even heavier— the lesser density of the cloud allows it to float on the dryer and more-dense air.

What is the heaviest cloud?

Cumulonimbus clouds are associated with extreme weather such as heavy torrential downpours, hail storms, lightning and even tornadoes.

Do clouds weigh 1 billion pounds?

Answer: Thus, a 'typical' fair weather cumulus cloud "weighs" about 1 billion 400 million pounds, or about 800 million pounds less than dry air of equal volume. Thats a lot of weight!

Is a cloud heavier than an elephant?

Viewed from a plane, clouds appear fluffy and light, but in fact the water droplets and ice crystals making up the average cumulus cloud (1km cubed in size) weigh around 550 tonnes – the same as a herd of 100 African elephants. Meanwhile, a towering thunderstorm cloud is equivalent to 200,000 elephants.

Can a cloud weigh as much as an airplane?

According to columnist Cecil Adams, "a modest-size cloud, one kilometer in diameter and 100 meters thick, has a mass equivalent to one B-747 jumbo jet." ("Can a cloud weigh as much as a 747?", http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a980313a.html, accessed on Sep.

How Much Do Clouds Actually Weigh?

What is the weight of a cloud?

After doing the math, an average 1 kilometer by 1 kilometer cumulus cloud weighs about 1.1 billion pounds.

How big can a cloud get?

Cumulus clouds are large and lumpy. Their name comes from the Latin word meaning "heap" or "pile." They can stretch vertically into the atmosphere up to 12,000 meters (39,000 feet) high.

How many gallons of water are in a cloud?

A large cumulus cloud that you might find on a nice summer day is made up of about 1 million pounds of water drops. A thunderstorm cloud contains enough water drops to fill up approximately 275 million gallon jars. That's about 2.3 billion pounds, or 1.1 million tons of water.

Is it illegal to fly into a cloud?

It's illegal.

The rules and requirements put forth by the FAA are codified as Federal Aviation Regulations (FARs). Violations of the FARs are illegal.

Is it legal to fly through clouds?

The only regulatory restriction is that student pilots are not allowed to fly above a cloud layer without ground reference. VFR over-the-top can be a very useful tool to get above a cloud layer instead of flying in haze or restricted visibility below the clouds.

How do clouds float if they're so heavy?

The key to why clouds float is that the density of the same volume of cloud material is less than the density of the same amount of dry air. Just as oil floats on water because it is less dense, clouds float on air because the moist air in clouds is less dense than dry air.

How heavy is a dark 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).

Are darker clouds heavier?

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The thicker the cloud, the darker it appears. Clouds with larger water droplets or clouds that are on the taller side scatter even more light and appear even darker.

Are clouds heavier than whales?

Five hundred million grams of water droplets make up a one cubic meter cloud. This means clouds weigh about 500 thousand kilograms or 1.1 million pounds; that's around five times as heavy as a blue whale, the largest animal in the world.

What is the heaviest thing on earth?

ANSWER: According to Guinness, the Revolving Service Structure of launch pad 39B at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida is the heaviest thing that's ever been directly weighed. It measured at about 5.34 million pounds or 2,423 tons.

How much rain can a cloud hold?

A large cumulus cloud that you might find on a nice summer day is made up of about 1 million pounds of water drops. A thunderstorm cloud contains enough water drops to fill up approximately 275 million gallon jars. That's about 2.3 billion pounds, or 1.1 million tons of water.

Why are clouds white?

In a cloud sunlight is scattered equally, meaning that the sunlight continues to remain white and gives clouds their distinctive white appearance.

Can you physically touch a cloud?

Unfortunately, it does not feel like cotton balls or cotton candy, but most people have technically touched a cloud before. If you wanted to touch an airborne cloud, the best way to do this is either skydiving or in a hot air balloon, though I would not want to be stuck in a cloud while in a hot air balloon.

Which cloud is rarest?

Noctilucent clouds - the rarest clouds in the world - have glowed like shimmering cobwebs in the sky over the San Francisco Bay Area, US and experts think they were likely the result of a rocket launch.

Why do pilots avoid clouds?

Moreover, the turbulence inside a cloud can become extreme and break apart an aircraft. Thus, it is extremely dangerous to fly inside such a system.

Can clouds shake a plane?

These cloud-borne updrafts and downdrafts result in rapid and unpredictable changes to the lift force on the wings of an aircraft. More or less lift and the difference between these changes is what causes the aircraft to lurch and jump about during flight, or turbulence as it is called within the industry.

Why do planes shake clouds?

The most common cause of turbulence is due to turbulent air in Earth's atmosphere. The jet streams around Earth can cause sudden changes in the wind speed that can rock airplanes. Thermal turbulence can occur; this is created by hot rising air from cumulus clouds or thunderstorms.

How cold is the water in clouds?

When in small droplet form, liquid water must be cooled well below 0 ° C (32 °F) before freezing. In fact, under optimal conditions, a pure droplet may reach -40 °C before freezing. Therefore, there are areas within a cloud were ice crystals and water droplets co-exist.

How much of a cloud is dust?

A human effect on cloud formation

They compared their results with analyses from the onboard mass spectrometer and found the two datasets revealed very similar cloud profiles: More than 60 percent of cloud particles consisted of mineral dust blown into the atmosphere, as well as metallic aerosols.