What is the average cloud weight?

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:48

In the fast pace of modern life, there is no time to look around, let alone the sky. And if you manage to connect with nature on a legal day off, get out for a rest and lie down on the grass, then you can contemplate the blue sky with pleasure and watch the "white-winged horses" running across it. Most often, a person considers the shape of passing clouds, fantasizing about this topic. But few people thought about the average weight of a cloud…

A bit of physics

To find out the mass of the most ordinary cloud, you need to know what it consists of. A cloud consists of concentrated water vapor, "suspended" in the atmosphere of the planet, which arises due to evaporation from the surface of the earth and oceans. But still, a cloud often consists not only of steam, but also of water droplets or ice grains, which make up the average weight of the cloud. All "filling" depends on the ambient temperature of the cloud. An excessive amount of these very grains is the reason for precipitation in the future - the more there are, the heavier the cloud, the more likely it is to rain, hail orsnow.

In fact, many people consider clouds to be the same fog that we are used to seeing on the ground. At least, this is how they were characterized by the explorers who rose in balloons or fell into the clouds on the tops of the mountains. There are definitely similarities. Indeed, in the fog that descends to the ground, there are also particles of water, which is popularly called "drizzle". Otherwise, these are completely different phenomena that have different densities, the environment of occurrence, and the result: precipitation cannot arise from fog, but from a cloud - easily.

How to measure a cloud?

It would seem how you can weigh what is hanging in the air or floating in the sky. But it turns out it's pretty easy to do. For scientists, of course. After all, in order to carry out the necessary calculations, you need to know exactly at what height from the surface of the earth the cloud is located. In addition to this parameter, you also need to know the amount of condensed air that makes up the cloud. From these initial data, it is possible to determine the average weight of the cloud. Unfortunately, only meteorologists have such data, so the calculations are carried out in special laboratories.

The type of clouds can help a little in this tricky business. Meteorologists can distinguish between all 10 types of clouds, each of which has its own density, distance from the earth's surface and composition. After all, the formation of each variety occurs at different heights, where both the temperature regime is different and the speed of air flows. With this data and state-of-the-art tools to helpdetermine cloudiness, you can answer a very interesting question.

What is the weight of an average cloud?

There are many versions and calculations that measure the weight of a snow-white cloud. But after all, all clouds are different, so there must be a certain formula that allows you to measure the mass. Let's not get into the jungle of physical formulas, since an ordinary person watching a cloud will not even be able to find out the distance to it. Let's trust the experts who claim that the average weight of a cloud is 800 tons. How it was calculated is anyone's guess, but that's the scientific evidence.

At the same time, the National Atmospheric Research Center, which is located in Colorado, claims that the easiest way to measure the mass of clouds, no matter how ridiculous it may sound, is to measure with elephants. They claim that it is so easy even for a child to explain what it is about. Judging by their analogy, if an elephant weighs about 5 tons, then the weight of the average cloud will be 100 elephants. As a result, we have 500 tons of a vaporous substance, of which a meager percentage falls on the share of water. Just imagine what a mass hangs over our heads almost daily. And this is just the average weight of the cloud. I don’t even want to talk about how much mass a black thundercloud has. Probably, if we consider elephants, then the entire population of these animals will not be enough to calculate the clouds of a hurricane.

Conclusion

No one knows for sure who first came up with the idea of finding out the average weight of a cloud. One thing is known - thanks to meteorological knowledge, thisbecame possible. Let the data be inaccurate, differ in their results and methods of calculation, but the curiosity of mankind is satisfied, and such a question is now unlikely to confuse anyone.