Why do clouds look fluffy?

	Tweet			Pin It
1

Have you ever wished you could reach up into the sky to break off a bite from a cloud, because it looked so puffy and delicious, like some cotton candy or a marshmallow?? 

Fluffy, puffy clouds are almost always the type of cloud known as “cumulus clouds.” They get this name for a good reason: cumulus means “heap” in Latin! Clouds form when tiny, light droplets of water float up into the sky and hold on to each other. Depending on the conditions (like temperature and wind) that are present during the formation of a cloud, the cloud comes out looking wispy, feathery, curly, lumpy, or puffy!

A cloud becomes a fluffy cumulus cloud instead of a wispy or thin or curly type of cloud when the water droplets that are joining together are in patches of moist air with breezes moving upwards. This makes them grow tall and puff up! 

Cumulus clouds sometimes grow upward and become even bigger clouds known as “cumulonimbus clouds.” – It’s probably a good idea to head indoors when this happens, because it often means a storm is coming!

Count your clouds!

You can learn a lot about clouds from just looking at them!

Keep track of the clouds you see outside every day for a week or even two. Write down what kinds of clouds there were (Lumpy? Feathery? None at all?) and what the other weather conditions were like that day. For example, was it hot? Did it rain? Did it cool down a lot overnight, or was there a lot of wind?

At the end of your observation period, see what kinds of similarities you can draw from what the weather was like and what kinds of clouds there were!

Posted by  MaryanneW  on 2011-03-19 18:06:40  

We wanted to know why clouds look like cottoncandy. Thanks, this did the trick!!!!!