eli5 : Why do cloud move as a whole thing and not dissolve in the wind?

516 views

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

7 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Think of a cloud as a three dimensional graph in the sky of a volume where the relative humidity has reached 100% and moisture has condensed into tiny droplets of liquid water. You might see a cloud moving across the sky as a unified thing when in fact new droplets are condensing into liquid at the leading edge while droplets are evaporating back into vapor at the trailing edge.

You are viewing 1 out of 7 answers, click here to view all answers.