Why is rain falling as little droplets when it could pour out?

Question

How com rain come down as droplets, no matter how drastic a storm is, or how gentle a rain shower is? I am quite bothered and troubled why this happens... Why couldn't it pour just as what happens when you pour out water from a mug or a dipper? I hope that you could provide answers... Thanks!

Answer 1

I'm not an expert but at a guess I would say that maybe the cloud isn't very full of water. If you take a big sponge and pour a bit of water onto it, only little bits dribble out but if tyou fill the sponge with water then it pours out.
Ok I just read the 2 answers above me and now mine looks really cr@p. Sorry.

Answer 2

A cloud is made of small drops of water or ice crystals depending upon its height and how cold its sorrounding air is.Most rainfall begins as snow crystals and other solid forms.Entering the warmer air below the cloud, these ice particles often melt and reach the ground as raindrops.Raindrops as they descend,initiate a chain reaction,a downward trend of the water droplets , with the larger drops always breaking.The larger the cloud droplet, the better its chances of colliding with a giant droplet.Thus there are collisions between raindrops.Some collisions cause drops to coalesce, forming a large drop and some cause drops to break into smaller ones.As the sizes of drops are different,each drop falls at a different speed.Giant droplets fall rapidly.Thus drops keep on falling side by side and not in a continuous stream.Under these circumstances, pouring out as continuous stream is not possible

Answer 3

Clouds are made up of water vapor, that is, water in gaseous form. Rain is created when the moisture in clouds condenses into drops just heavy enough to fall. (Think of an iced tea glass on a hot summer day.)

The molecules of water vapor as they cool into rain are attracted to each other. Once they reach a certain mass (raindrop size), they are heavy enough to fall, and it rains.

The raindrops stay separate from each other because water has a property called "surface tension" that creates a resistance to being penetrated. So the drops bounce off each other as they fall instead of forming together into a stream.

You can see surface tension at work: take a glass of ordinary water and slow put a finger into the surface of the water. You can see the surface of the water actually bend before your finger breaks the surface.