If rain is water and water is transparent and clouds are made of rain then why are clouds grey?

Answer 1

clouds are made up of candy and flowers

Answer 2

A cloud is a visible mass of condensed droplets or frozen crystals suspended in the atmosphere above the surface of the Earth or another planetary body. The branch of meteorology in which clouds are studied is nephology.

On Earth the condensing substance is water vapor, which forms small droplets or ice crystals, typically 0.01 mm in diameter. When surrounded by billions of other droplets or crystals they become visible as clouds. Dense deep clouds exhibit a high reflectance (70% to 95%) throughout the visible range of wavelengths: they thus appear white, at least from the top.

Cloud droplets tend to scatter light efficiently, so that the intensity of the solar radiation decreases with depth into the cloud, hence the grey or even sometimes dark appearance of the clouds at their base.

Thin clouds may appear to have acquired the color of their environment or background, and clouds illuminated by non-white light, such as during sunrise or sunset, may be colored accordingly. In the near-infrared range, however, clouds would appear darker because the water that constitutes the cloud droplets strongly absorbs solar radiation at those wavelengths.

Hope this helps

Answer 3

its because the air is imperfect and contains dust molecules.... although they cannot be seen they can when a cloud is formed because the water molecule fuses with the dust molecule and therefore creates a cloud.... clouds are made of many things not just water vapor and dust but you get the idea... a cloud though is not just water vapor... if it was then like you said it would be transparent... it rains because if the dust particle holds too many water molecules then they fal out, combine with other falling droplets, and they fall to the ground, but it is filtered of all dust and impurities (unless of course its something like acid rain)

Answer 4

Clouds are grey due to there composition - mainly dirt and pollutants. You only have to catch some rain water in a glass to see the dirt that is contained in the rain.

Sky is blue I believe because Ozone is a bluish gas.

Answer 5

Dark clouds are the "Rain Clouds". They have more water in them and so block the sunlight more than the "white" clouds. Hence they appear grey or dark.

Answer 6

Simple really - water droplets are not all alligned so their edges refract and or reflect white light. If the cloud is very thick it may very well look darker. Don't forget too, that clouds often contain ice crystals, so there is now the issue of hydrogen bonding and another spectral interference.

Answer 7

Who said clouds were made of rain, if they were, they wouldn't float. They would plummet to earth with one almighty 'spladooosh'. A cloud is made up of water vapour that gets released as rain droplets.

Answer 8

steam isnt transparent, when water changes state it no longer stays transparent, and that is what a cloud is, plus rainwater is not pure, all the chemicals in the air is also in it too

Answer 9

It's the shadow effect of clouds above. They're really white.

Answer 10

Light is white
Dark is black
Grey is inbetween.
It is the absence of light.
-
By the way. The ocean looks blue but it is actually green with plant life. Blue comes from the reflection from the sky. I don't know why the sky is blue but liquid oxygen is blue.

Answer 11

Who said water is transparent?
It's semitransparent.
Can you see through 5mm of snow ?
Can you see deeper than 20m into the sea ?
Can I see the peas in my fridge?