Clouds come in all shapes and sizes
Some clouds are flat. Others are puffy. Some are pretty and turn orange or red at sunrise or sunset. Others signal stormy weather and can produce precipitation, such as rain, hail or snow. Meteorologists, or weather forecasters, spend lots of time predicting clouds. That’s because clouds are behind all storm systems — from tornadoes and hurricanes to rain and snowstorms. Explainer: What are aerosols? Technically speaking, a cloud is nothing more than a clump of aerosols — small solid or liquid particles suspended in the air. In some clouds, those aerosols can be bits of wildfire smoke or even desert dust. But most clouds are made of water. A typical cloud droplet is only 20 micrometers (0.00008 inch) in diameter. That’s less than a thousandth the size of an average raindrop. Since cloud droplets are so tiny, they are very light. And that’s part of why clouds float. These water droplets start to form through evaporation. Evaporation occurs when liquid water molecules become energized and change phase into a gas. Energy from the sun heats …
