How much does a cloud weigh?
A tough question to answer since clouds come in many different shapes and sizes. On some days I look up at the sky and see nothing but cloud in every direction, I’m scared to think how much those clouds weigh, so I’ll just talk about the nice fluffy clouds we see on nice summer days, they are called cumulus clouds. Not to be confused with nimbus clouds which can also be fluffy looking but are often dark, nimbus clouds are rain clouds if you haven’t already guessed that.
Let’s assume our cumulus cloud is a kilometer cubed. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates that the density of cloud droplets is about 0.0005kg/m cubed and moist air is 0.627kg/m cubed. Dry air is in comparison 1.007 kg/cubic meter, that’s why clouds manage to stay up in the sky, most of the time, as heavy as it may be, it’s still lighter than dry air so it sits atop of it. Remember that the higher air goes the less dense it is, the lighter it is. A cloud is then both the cloud droplets and the moist air combined. Mass is density multiplied by volume, the density is 0.632kg/meter cubed times one billion (there are one billion cubed meters in a cubed kilometer), which equals 1.4 billion pounds.
I’ll link to the web site I got this info from so you don’t think I’m making it all up.
http://www.wrh.noaa.gov/fgz/science/cloud.php?wfo=fgz
