How much do clouds weigh?

Answer 1

http://www.wsi.com/corporate/newsroom/newsletter/md2/CloudWeight.html

Peggy LeMone, senior scientist at the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Boulder, Colorado, did the numbers. "The water in the little cloud weighs about 550 tons," she calculates.

Assume an elephant weighs about six tons, she says, that would mean that water inside a typical cumulous cloud would weigh about one hundred elephants.


So how many elephant units of water are inside a big storm cloud … 10 times bigger all the way around than the "puffy" cumulus cloud? Again, LeMone did the numbers: About 200,000 elephants.

Now, ratchet up the calculations for a hurricane about the size of Missouri and the figures get really massive.

"What we're doing is weighing the water in one cubic meter theoretically pulled from a cloud and then multiplying by the number of meters in a whole hurricane," she explains.

The result? Forty million elephants. That means the water in one hurricane weighs more than all the elephants on the planet. Perhaps even more than all the elephants that have ever lived on the planet. And that is a lot of water.

http://www.wsi.com/corporate/newsroom/newsletter/md2/CloudWeight.html

Answer 2

How Much Do Clouds Weigh

Answer 3

Apparently, a ten mile square blanket of fog ten feet thick would fill just a bucket of water. Depending how big the bucket is, a gallon of water weighs 10 pounds. Cloud is simply fog but up in the sky, so decide how big your cloud is and there's your answer!
The question as to whether it weighs anything because it's actually floating in the sky is something else, though. A lot of clouds, if not all, are kept aloft by heat from the ground, so they do actually have weight.

Answer 4

I'm not exactly sure how much clouds weigh, but I just read in a book that said when London is covered by fog, scientists say that all that thick fog that covers the entire city is created by less than 2 cups of water. That doesn't weigh very much. So I would say clouds weigh very little.

Answer 5

For the most part weighless. I say this as when it is foggy you are able to walk through the fog or stand there with no problem. Well fog is clouds. If there were any weight to it you would be crushed. Think about it This cloud or fog is right on top of you. It envelopes you. But yet we are able to functions with no problems. So I'll say they don't weigh anything.

Answer 6

They weigh the same amount that the same mass of water would. Clouds are made from water vapour, plus stray bits of sand, grit etc that gets trapped so to find out how much a cloud weighs you would need to work out how high it is, then use its height to calculate its density. When you know it's density you multi[ly this by it's mass per cm cubed.

Answer 7

They are very heavy.

It is like feathers. They weigh almost nothing but fill a stadium and they get heavy. Most clouds are huge, you would not be able to lift them if you could grab on.

Answer 8

well i took out the bathroom scales and put a cloud on them whilst holding it in my hand. it weighed 100 kilos. i then took off what i tell evryone i weigh - like 80 kilos - so they must weigh 20 kilos

Answer 9

as much as the water that makes them! all clouds are different, thats what makes them so fun to look at!

Answer 10

as much as cotton weighs