Question: How do clouds form?

Freya Addison answered on 22 Nov 2019: last edited 22 Nov 2019 11:03 am

Clouds form through the water cycle. Water is evaporated from the surface of the Earth. As a gas it is excitable and wants to move apart. It rises up in hot air columns but it also starts to spread out (less pressure), and cool down, when it cools enough it goes back to its liquid form but because they are so small and far apart they can rise back up with a bit of hot air or wind. Eventually, the droplets will start to come together, and then with more droplets there will be more collisions making bigger droplets which are heavier so start to sink, til eventually, we get massive heavy clouds which then rain.
For more information see: https://scied.ucar.edu/learning-zone/clouds/how-clouds-form

For water to condense earlier or with more ease they need a particle to condense on such as dust or pollution. You can make your own cloud in a bottle using an empty bottle, a bung, a bike pump and a little bit of watered down antibacterial gel: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msSVQ903T8k)