If clouds are made from the sun evaporating water, why doesnt it rain all the time in summer when its warmer?

Answer 1

And the other question: Why does it snow in the winter? How does the water get up there, if it's too cold to evaporate?

You are absolutely right that what goes up, has to come down. But the warmer it is, the less likely it is that the clouds will condense and form rain (particularly in areas with low pressure). So the clouds move around the globe and it starts raining somewhere else where the local climate fosters condensation. That's unlike to be in the desert or arid areas, but more likely to happen in areas with high humidity/pressure.

Meterology is rather difficult, but hope this makes sense

Answer 2

Well, you kind of have it backwards. Clouds form when evaporated water (water vapor) is somehow induced to cool. Sometimes this happens when a column of air rises because it is warmer than the ambient air at mid and upper levels. It will cool as it rises, because the air is thinner at higher altitudes, so it expands. Even though it cools as it rises, it may encounter still colder ambient air, so it continues rising. This is instability, and that's the basic ingredient for a thunderstorm.

That cooling causes the column of air to condense the water vapor (at and above the level where the temperature drops to the dew point), and then it rains.

Another way in which rain occurs in the summer is the encroachment of a cold front, which, again, cools the air to and below the dewpoint, causing condensation and thus rain. The dewpoint at lower levels may be in the 60's or even 70's in the summer, so it doesn't take much of a cold front to drop the temperature below those temps.

It doesn't rain all the time because when the sun comes out and evaporates the water, the opposite of condensation is occurring. It won't rain again until something makes it cool back down.

Know how it often gets foggy at night after a hot, humid, sticky day? The air cooled to the dewpoint, you then have 100% humidity, but it doesn't rain because condensation releases heat and keeps the temperature from dropping farther. Since the temp stabilizes right at the dewpoint, you get a bit of an equilibrium, and the tiny water droplets remain suspended in the air.

That's the simple explanation for all that...

Answer 3

'Cos hot air holds more water than cold air and the water only forms clouds or falls as rain when it cools.
The energy of the sun shining on moisture provides the energy for its evaporation.
RoyS

Answer 4

Because the droplets that accumilate in the clouds don't get heavy enough to fall, due to the sum evaporating the water ! I think : )

Answer 5

Depends on saturation point. In humid climates such as the rain forest it rains every day

Answer 6

Because the sun is much hotter and dries up the clouds altogether.

Answer 7

you need to go through the water cycle again.