When it’s about to rain, clouds darken because the water vapor is clumping together into raindrops, leaving larger spaces between drops of water. Less light is reflected. The rain cloud appears black or gray. Nimbus clouds are those which bring precipitation, and they usually appear in the sky as dark gray.
When it’s about to rain, clouds darken because the water vapor is clumping together into raindrops, leaving larger spaces between drops of water. Less light is reflected. The rain cloud appears black or gray. Clouds form when air becomes saturated, or filled, with water vapor .
Why are some clouds darker than others?
As clouds build vertically and get thicker, such as a cumulonimbus cloud, less light can pass through the cloud. This will give it a darker appearance. This is also the reason why the bottom of clouds sometimes appear darker than the top.
Why are some clouds darker than other?
Some clouds are white and some are ” black” due to two chief reasons: 2) viewpoint and/or background (contrast). Concerning optical thickness: it is a technical term that just means that a thicker cloud has more droplets of water for the light to scatter off of.
Here is what I researched. the larger the droplets the more of light they absorb. So clouds with large droplets absorb much of the light and look gray, or dark gray. Put 1 and 2 above together. Clouds with large droplets are darker and have more possibility of rain. So rain clouds are dark clouds. 11 Sponsored by Truth. Finder How can I run a background check online?
Why do clouds sometimes look so low?
This was mostly the result of fewer clouds forming at the highest altitudes, according to a NASA release. Scientists are not sure why this happened, but it might be due to a change in atmospheric circulation patterns at high altitudes, Davies said.
Water is not lighter than air – water does not float. So why don’t clouds fall out of the sky ? The two biggest reasons that clouds stay in the sky are 1) small drops, and 2) wind. … Because small drops have less mass and more surface area than large drops, they have a harder time pushing the air out of the way.