In this picture, as the day warms the air next to the ground will warm, too, and the fog particles will again evaporate back into invisible water vapor. Actually, fog IS a cloud, but one that swirls around your feet instead of high in the sky.įog forms when air containing invisible water vapor encounters cooler temperatures (next to the ground) and some of the water vapor condenses out into liquid water droplets. Learn more: Evaporation | Cohesion | Surface tension | Vapor pressureįog contains very tiny liquid water particles, like a cloud, and floats, like a cloud. The colder temperatures cause water vapor to condense into water droplets and can result in fog. When warm air containing a lot of water vapor (high humidity) moves into colder temperatures (either high in the atmosphere or even on the outside of your glass of iced tea), the colder temperatures cause water vapor to condense into a liquid. Humidity: The amount of water vapor in the air is known as "humidity", often mentioned in the weather reports on the local news. Thus, it makes sense that water evaporates more easily in hot conditions, such as in the desert, rather than on a cloudy winter day. The sun's energy breaks the bonds that hold liquid water's molecules together. The need for heat: As usual, you can thank the sun for keeping evaporation going. It is the invisible process of evaporation that changes liquid and frozen water into water-vapor gas, which then floats up into the skies to become clouds. Hot water sprayed inside cooling towers first evaporates, and then condenses to form these "clouds".įor the water cycle to work, water has to get from the Earth's surface back up into the skies so it can rain back down and ruin your parade or water your crops or yard. Learn more: Atmosphere | Condensation | "Little cloud that could" | Rainbows That is equal to about 22 million (22,000,000) kids weighing 100 pounds each. According to NOAA, your average cumulus cloud one kilometer (0.62 miles) on a side will weigh about 998 million kilograms (2.2 billion pounds). Water vapor naturally floats upwards, eventually condensing and forming clouds.Īnd, a cloud weighs. You know hydrogen is the lightest of all elements, and, even when combined with an oxygen atom, the hydrogen acts like little "hot air balloons" that makes the vapor lighter than the molecules in the surrounding dry air. Water vapor contains water molecules-one oxygen atom and two hydrogen atoms. What fools you is that the water vapor in the air in a clear, blue sky is invisible, and there is not enough water vapor to condense into clouds.
That is because oil is lighter (less dense) than water the same thing applies to clouds in the sky. Think about oil and water-if you pour oil into water the oil floats to the top of the water. Clouds are made of water, and water has weight, so how can they float? They float because the air below them has weight, too-more weight.
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