Why is the bottom of clouds flat?

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Hey!

So i was juste outside looking at the sky and there are many clouds out right now, they’re all of many different sizes and shapes but they all share one common trait. Their underside is flat. I thought it may just be the perspective or lighting but if that’s the case then it’s a very convincing illusion because they all look like they have a flat bottom…

is there a reason for this or is it actually not the case?

In: Physics

4 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

There’s kind of a floor that clouds form on top of. It’s dependent on a lot of factors, like temperature and humidity and air pressure. If you’ve ever been up in the mountains, you sometimes see clouds below you in the morning, and as the day progresses and the earth heats up, the cloudes rise higher as the level of that “floor” rises.

So they are flat on the bottom because there’s an elevation below which the cloud can’t exist.

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