Floating Water. CLOUDS.

                                        

 Floating Water. CLOUDS.

Have you ever looked up at the clouds and wondered what they're made of?

     Well, they're made of water - thousands of litres of water, floating high in the sky. It's easier to believe this when you know that cloud water takes the form of tiny droplets. The droplets are so tiny that you couldn't see one if it was separated from all the others.

     Sometimes the water droplets join together around tiny pieces of dust in the air. These droplets become bigger and bigger as more of them collect. When they become too heavy to float, they fall -'plop!" That's rain!

     There are three main kinds of cloud. 'Cumulus' are the small puffballs or great woolly-looking clouds that are flat on the bottom. 'Stratus' are low clouds, usually streaky or without much shape. And 'cirrus' are light feathery clouds. Sometimes, when a cirrus cloud is high in the very cold air, the whole cloud is made of ice.

     Adding 'nimbus' to any of these names changes it to mean a rain cloud. Tall white cottony rain clouds are called 'cumulonimbus', or thunderclouds. They often bring thunderstorms. Flat grey rain clouds are called 'nimbostratus.' They usually bring only rain.

 

 Floating Water. CLOUDS.

Snow, sleet, and hail also fall from clouds. Snow and sleet usually fall on cold winter days. Hailstones can fall even on a warm summer day.

     And you may not realize it, but you've probably been right inside a cloud yourself. A cloud so close to the ground that we can walk through it is 'fog'.

 Floating Water. CLOUDS.