Clouds: What Are They Made of and How Do They Form?

I've always been fascinated by weather and climate. As a child, I would always look forward to Winter because that was the season that brought the more exciting and diverse weather systems and patterns. From a meteorological point of view, sunny and fair weather is rather boring. It may feel nice and make great weather for a whole sleuth of outdoor activities, but nothing beats thunder, lightning, rain, and snow in terms of weather-generated excitement. As a person who took a fair number of weather and climate courses in junior college, I have learned a great deal about the atmosphere in which we live. One of the most basic things that I learned in one of my early weather and climate classes is the simple ways in which clouds form. I had always wondered what was inside clouds and how they formed; how those big, beautiful, and billowy things could float in the air like that. What were they made of, and why so many different shapes and sizes?

Clouds. Nothing is more obvious in the daytime sky than a cloud. Clouds are everywhere, and they come in so many different shapes and sizes that it's mind boggling. But what are clouds? I think that's a basic question that many have. And it's a good question. Clouds, no matter their size, consist of water. Clouds are suspended water. Nothing fancy or technical about it. Clouds form when air that is sufficiently moist rises. If the rising air is sufficiently moist and it reaches its dew point - the point at which condensation occurs - you have cloud formation. In a nutshell, that is how a basic cloud forms. For example, a large body of water - such as an ocean - will release a tremendous amount of water vapor as the result of heating from the sun. The higher the temperature, the more water that gets evaporated and released into the air. That's the first part of cloud formation. The second part involves lifting of that evaporated water; as you climb further and further up into the atmosphere, the temperature drops. If a rising parcel of air rises high enough and cools down to its dew point, you have condensation, which is the final step in cloud formation. So, basically, a cloud is the result of condensation that takes place in the sky. A key thing to always focus on when studying clouds is the term "lift". Air needs to be lifted high enough so that it will cool down to its dew point. This lifting, which often results in cloud formation, can happen many different ways.

In very warm and humid areas- areas like the tropics or areas of Florida- you have big, magnificent thunderstorms that develop in the warmer months. The reason for this is that the air is so hot and humid to begin with. The hotter the air, the more rapidly it will climb into the atmosphere. When it reaches its dew point, the huge amount of water vapor already in the air condenses and forms big, billowy clouds. These are the clouds that produce thunderstorms. Another common way that clouds form is by "forced" lifting. When an air mass encounters a huge obstacle such as a mountain range, the air is forced up and over the mountain. If the mountain is high enough and the air is sufficiently moist, the air that gets lifted over the mountain will reach its condensation point and form clouds. That's why its normal to have cloud formation over mountains; the mountains serve as a springboard for the air, pushing it up into the atmosphere. Many times, after a Winter storm has passed through an area, the valley areas will be sunny and clear, but the nearby mountains might be shrouded in clouds from the leftover moisture following the storm that gets "lifted" up into the atmosphere by the mountain barrier.

So, in a nutshell, this is the simplified story on clouds. Clouds are beautiful and they come in many different shapes and sizes. After reading this article, you will now have a better understanding of what clouds are and how they form.