Mammatus Clouds
Lenticular Clouds
Undulatus Asperatus
Fallstreak Hole
Polar Stratospheric Cloud
Cirrus Kelvin-Helmholtz
Roll Clouds
Anvil Clouds
Clouds can be remarkably beautiful but they are also very powerful. It is mind boggling to think that most clouds weigh more than 6,269 blue whales!
The calculation is based on a typical cumulus cloud (the most common cloud) which is about 1 cubic kilometer in volume and 2 km above ground, with an air density estimated to be at about 1.007 kg/m3 and the clouds (water droplets) are less dense and come close to 1.003 kg/m3 (which is why they float), and there are estimated to be 1,000,000 cubic meters of droplets in an average cumulus cloud.
The weight can be calculated using this equation (density by volume by a factor):
1.003 kg/m3x 1,000x 1 km3 = 1,003,000,000 kg
Which is over a billion kilograms of droplets or close to 2.2 billion pounds. Assuming a blue whale is close to 160 (160,000 kg) tones in weight, a cumulus cloud weighs as much as 6,268.75 blue whales!
It’s truly amazing to think clouds weigh so much and that they are floating overhead!