why do we feel turbulence in an aircraft when going through clouds formed in the air, but not when walking through clouds formed at the surface?
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Simply passing through ‘normal’ clouds such as on descent gives us a sense of ‘buffeting’ in the plane, but it is not truly the same as turbulence in the air.
Air with saturated water vapour in it (i.e. clouds) is less dense than drier air. A plane flying at high speed entering a cloud suddenly transitions to less dense medium. This reduces both the drag AND the lift on the plane and so is like a ‘jolting’ of the plane by changing outside forces. The effects are relatively small – as we know – the plane emerges unscathed and we just feel low scale bumps.
Clear air turbulence and also in clouds such as towering cumulonimbus (thunder clouds) are different phenomena and can cause the more violent turbulence that we hopefully rarely experience.
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