why are rainclouds really dark, water is clear??

Question

when the have got rid of the rain do they turn lighter in colour??

Answer 1

Because the cloud is denser due to the increased moisture content. As it is denser, less light is able to pass through it, so it appears darker.

Answer 2

They are only dark from below where the natural light has been obscured. They are white from above where the natural light is reflected.

Water droplets in the cloud reflect and refract the amount of natural light which would otherwise be visible to an observer standing between the cloud and a light source.

If the amount of water is reduced, so the reflection and refraction is reduced and therefore more natural light is allowed to pass. The do turn lighter.

Answer 3

My guess would be that water magnifies like a magnifying glass, and the dirt and dust that is in a rain cloud, gets magnified tremendously, so that it looks "dirty". Plus, you have the 'blue sky', being looked at through a dirty lens, and that darkens the "hue". Plus rain "bends" the light into different frequencies, such as refracting from a prism, to show dark clouds.

When the rain falls, and the clouds are empty, you have less magnification and the sunlight permeates the cloud easier so it shows white, instead of the dark side that the rain saturated clouds become...

My supposition:

I wish you well..

Jesse

Answer 4

The thick cloud filled with drops of rain obscures the sunlight and cast a shadow on the lower portion of the cloud making it look dark. After rain, the cloud no longer is as thick and therefore casts less shadow, cool hey.

Answer 5

The only way rain drops form is that it is moisture around grains of dust. So it is a collection of water covered dust in the sky, hence the dark colour.

Answer 6

The water in rain clouds is composed of droplets that tend to refract and reflect light. They are clear, yes, but their refractive index is not equal to that of air. All those droplets together tend to reflect the light back off the top of the cloud into space, and not very much of it gets down to the bottom.

Answer 7

Yes, less light gets through them, but they are still white, honest.

Hold a sheet of white paper in front of the sun at arms length. What colour is it? It is a trick of the eye, the eye is doing an auto contrast, baised on the total light you are seeing. this is what happens with clouds as they get denser they are more effective at blocking the light. Please test it before you call the men in white coats for me

Answer 8

well rain drop looks clean but they are dirty and that prevents to make the cloud dark and try this at home when it rain put a glass front of yur home and after the take the glass u will see that the water is dirty try it works

Answer 9

there is wind up there, wind and evaporation combine to produce a cloud" moisture builds up and gets really heavy then moves down to Terra Firma. yes the clouds get lighter in colour as the moisture exits the cloud

Answer 10

Clouds are not made of water. They are made from dust and stuff like that. Let's compare it to a sponge. When a sponge sucks up water, it becomesa little darker and heavier, but a sponge isn't made of water.