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

A lot of these answers mention that clouds are big, but I think they’re failing to properly explain that. Clouds are *huge*. Many visible clouds are routinely bigger than entire cities, and can cover multiple square miles and be hundreds or thousands of feet tall. Yes there’s a lot of water up there that weighs a lot, but it’s *very* spread out, over potentially millions of cubic feet in a single cloud. The density stays relatively low, despite getting enough vapor and crystals to see. Much like fog at ground level, in the right temperature and atmosphere conditions, visible water vapor and tiny droplets can stay suspended for a very very long time without falling.