HOW ARE CLOUDS FORMED?
Clouds are formed when the air above the earth’s surface is cooled below its dew point. Clouds consist of billions of tiny water droplets or ice crystals suspended in air. Condensation first become visible as cloud if it takes place at an upper level of the atmosphere, or as a fog if it takes place near the ground. A cloud, when brought down to ground level, would look exactly like a fog! The water droplets that form clouds are so tiny that they float in the air, carried by air currents. The air is full of minute particles of dust, smoke, salt and other pollutants, around which form the condensation nuclei that stimulate the formation of clouds of various shapes and sizes, from towering thunder clouds to flat, dull, layered clouds. High –level ice-clouds as well as low-level layered clouds are normally formed in calm atmospheric conditions where there is little turbulence. Where there is much vertical motion in the atmosphere, with strong thermal up-currents and turbulence, heaped clou
