CLOUDS COME IN ALL SHAPES AND COLORS…BUT WHY?

As my baby granddaughter is just starting to learn how to walk and talk, I’m already thinking about answers to her soon-to-come questions.

After witnessing the intrinsic beauty of the cloud-lined sky casting a shadow over the Florida sun, I googled “What are clouds?” I learned I wasn’t the first to question this. The December 19, 2017 post with the question, “What Are Clouds?” was answered in detail as “…part of the NASA Knows! (Grades K-4) series.”

The article revealed that “A cloud is made of water drops or ice crystals floating in the sky. There are many kinds of clouds. Clouds are an important part of Earth's weather.”

There was more:

“How Do Clouds Form?
The sky can be full of water. But most of the time you can't see the water. The drops of water are too small to see. They have turned into a gas called water vapor. As the water vapor goes higher in the sky, the air gets cooler. The cooler air causes the water droplets to start to stick to things like bits of dust, ice or sea salt.

“What Are Some Types of Clouds?
Clouds get their names in two ways. One way is by where they are found in the sky. Some clouds are high up in the sky. Low clouds form closer to Earth's surface. In fact, low clouds can even touch the ground. These clouds are called fog. Middle clouds are found between low and high clouds.

Another way clouds are named is by their shape. Cirrus clouds are high clouds. They look like feathers. Cumulus clouds are middle clouds. These clouds look like giant cotton balls in the sky. Stratus clouds are low clouds. They cover the sky like bed sheets.

“What Causes Rain?
Most of the water in clouds is in very small droplets. The droplets are so light they float in the air. Sometimes those droplets join with other droplets. Then they turn into larger drops. When that happens, gravity causes them to fall to Earth. We call the falling water drops "rain." When the air is colder, the water may form snowflakes instead. Freezing rain, sleet or even hail can fall from clouds.

“Why Does NASA Study Clouds?
Clouds are important for many reasons. Rain and snow are two of those reasons. At night, clouds reflect heat and keep the ground warmer. During the day, clouds make shade that can keep us cooler. Studying clouds helps NASA better understand Earth's weather. NASA uses satellites in space to study clouds.

“NASA also studies clouds on other planets. Mars has clouds that are like the clouds on Earth. But other planets have clouds that aren't made of water. For example, Jupiter has clouds made of a gas called ammonia.”

Next, I googled, “Why the various colors of clouds?” This time, an internet search showed the reasons posted by EgoFelix Magazine:

“At midday, when the sun is high in the sky … light scattered off the water droplets in [the surrounding] clouds is composed of all the colors of the rainbow. When you mix every color of visible light — all the reds and greens and yellows and blues — you see white.

“On the other hand, at sunset, the clouds look reddish. That’s because sunlight from a low sun has to travel through more atmosphere before it reaches your eyes. Air molecules scatter blue light, and they scatter it best around sunset, when there’s more air between you and the sun. Meanwhile, the red and yellow components of white sunlight travel a straighter path to our eyes even at sunset — so the sunset clouds look those colors.

“Meanwhile, storm-clouds look very different from above than from below. Satellites flying above storm-clouds see them as brilliant white. There are typically lots of ice crystals at the tops of these clouds — these crystals scatter light so efficiently that the light never makes it to the bottoms of the clouds. So the bottoms of storm clouds, as we see them on the ground, look a sinister gray.”

I can’t wait to hear what shapes my granddaughter sees when she looks at the clouds. It will remind me of one of the games we played to fill the time on long rides when I was a child and traveled with my family. That was before we could enjoy the luxury of watching movies in the car on road trips.

Just last week on vacation in Florida, I felt “lost in the clouds” when staring up at this breathtaking scenery from the Hollywood Beach Broadwalk. Immersing myself in the celestial beauty, I pictured loved ones shining down and brightening the sky with each white cloud.

Easily obtained on the internet, the simple answers to my young granddaughter will suffice with “Clouds are made up of water floating in the sky. The dark ones are rain clouds.” As a genealogist with the command of names and stories of our loved ones here, as well as those concealed by the clouds, however, I’ll be sure to tell my granddaughter more than just the answers to her questions about the formation and color of clouds.