When do clouds decide to rain?
In: Earth Science
Not a meteorologist, but “gas” turns into liquid because: Pressure dropped or temperature dropped. In the atmosphere, pressure drops as you go higher, so if a cloud is “forced” upwards by terrain such as mountains, for example, it will rain. If it encounters a colder region or colder air mass, or it simply cooled down up there, then it will start raining (or snowing) too.
Why pressure drops makes it rain, you might ask? (Very) Simply put, the air gets thinner and can’t hold much more water anymore. So it rains.
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When they get too heavy to stay suspended in the cloud, even with updrafts within the cloud, they fall to Earth as rain. If the air in the cloud is below the freezing point (32 °F or 0 °C), ice crystals form; if the air all the way down to the ground is also freezing or below, you get snow
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