So there was [this post](https://reddit.com/r/nextfuckinglevel/s/a7A0IHKHPJ) in r/all of a 5 minute timelapse showing a cloud literally disappear. How does this happen? Was there just a suddenly dry wind? Does this happen often?
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Clouds aren’t solid objects, they’re made of water droplets. We can see the droplets but not the water in gaseous form around them.
Take the example of a mountain range where the wind pushes moist air up the slopes. As the air cools (due to its expansion at increasing altitude) water vapor condenses and forms these droplets (exactly like on a cold beer glass) and you have a cloud on top of the range.
But does the wind stop there? No, it drags the cloud downslope and the reverse happens: the air heats up and the droplets evaporate, that part of the cloud disappears.
What seems like a permanent structure – “a cloud” – is in fact constantly created (upslope) and destroyed (downslope).
Does this happen often? All the time. I like to take cloud pictures but all too often just going to grab my camera is enough for an interesting cloud to slim down to tatters. We just usually don’t pay much attention.
I can’t say what exactly happens in that video, just that the air pocket holding the cloud got somehow heated up.
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