eli5: How do (presumably very heavy) clouds stay suspended in the sky? More specifically how are they floating AND flat on the bottom?

Question

And what causes them to suddenly drop all of that water in the form of rain.

Judging by the amount of rain they must weigh a ton.

In: 337

Answer 1

Imagine a tiny speck of water, smaller than a drop and light enough to just float in the air. Now image 10 individual specks of water all floating separately. Now a hundred. A thousand. A million. A billion.

That’s how clouds work, they are not a solid lump of stuff like cotton candy but are just lots of absolutely tiny specks of water all floating separately.

The reason they can also be flat is because these specks of water can only exist and certain temperature/pressures. As you get lower in the atmosphere these change, so there is a certain height where the specks can’t exist any more.

BTW when conditions are right for clouds to exist at ground level, we call it fog.