5 fascinating facts about clouds

Clouds, like the sun, moon and stars, are part of our lives. And while we admire their beauty, we can hardly imagine the strange facts behind them. We have listed some of these below, but there’s much, much more we could write about the mysteries hidden up in the clouds.  

How much do clouds weigh?  
Since clouds float on air, are they weightless? Just the opposite. An average medium sized cloud contains about 500,000,000 grams of water droplets. So it weighs 50,00,000 kilograms, i.e. 551 tonnes. This "heavy" cloud is floating because the air below it is even heavier— the lesser density of the cloud allows it to float on the dryer and more-dense air.  

Are all clouds made of water? 
Most clouds we see are made up of tiny liquid water droplets. But the cirrus, a very common cloud, is made up of ice. Ice crystals form in the upper levels of the atmosphere when water vapour deposits onto tiny particles like dust or smoke. That creates the cirrus cloud.  

Is there a man-made cloud?  
Most clouds form from natural processes, but some can occur as a result of human activities. The best example of this is a condensation trail, commonly known as a contrail. Contrails are the result of an airplane’s hot, moist jet exhaust condensing in the extremely cold air of the upper atmosphere. These cirrus clouds are fun to spot as they mark the route of the flight.   

What else can create a cloud?  
We know that clouds usually form by hot air rising from the earth’s surface, and condensing to water droplets. But wildfires and volcanoes can also cause intense heating, which leads to the rapid formation of clouds known as pyrocumulus. These are thunder clouds with lots of lightning.  

Can other planets have clouds? 

Can Clouds also exist on other planets in the solar system. Venus has clouds made of sulphur dioxide while Jupiter and Saturn have clouds made of ammonia.