I live in a windy place. Right now, I am looking at clouds moving really fast. But cloud are just water vapor no? So how can they keep their shape and move as a whole piece instead of just being blown away by the wind?
Edit : thank you for all those detailed explanation ! I guess I’ll spend way more time looking at clouds now !!
In: Physics
Besides the good descriptions of why they can move as a group (the vapor feels the same general forces) there are a few other factors.
First, the wind itself is holding the cloud up. Water as a vapor in a cloud is a *liquid* and will fall. It’s only the updraft created by rising warm air, and reinforced through heat released when the water gas turns to liquid, that keeps the entire thing up. And as it isn’t a solid, this means the water droplets are constantly circulating. It is a turbulent environment for the tiny water droplets, not a smooth, floating experience you’d imagine by looking at the entire cloud.
And the edges of the cloud are constantly dispersing, or falling back into the cloud, if you watch a cloud closely, it is often growing and shifting in the direction it’s moving, not just drifting.
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