What are clouds made of?
Talk about it together
What shape do you see in the next cloud you spot?
What about...?
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Transcript
Have you ever looked up and wondered what clouds are made of?
The sun warms water in puddles, lakes, and oceans. Some water goes up into the air, too tiny to see.
High up, the air is colder, so the water gathers into tiny drops or bits of ice. Lots of them make a cloud.
The tiny drops float together and look white or gray from far away. When drops join and get heavy, rain can fall.
So clouds are made of tiny water drops or tiny bits of ice. They float high in the air together!
For grown-ups: the science
Clouds are made of tiny water drops or tiny bits of ice floating in the air.
Clouds form when water vapor cools and condenses onto tiny particles in the air, making cloud droplets or ice crystals. The droplets are small enough to remain suspended; when they grow larger through collision and coalescence or ice-crystal processes, precipitation may fall.