You’ll Never Guess How Much the Average Cloud Weighs

clouds

Have you ever wondered how much a cloud weighs? Because they float so effortlessly, it would be easy to assume they are almost weightless. But, they are most certainly not.

According to scientists, the weight of the average cumulus cloud is 1.1 million pounds! Think about that for a moment. This means that at any given moment, there are millions of pounds of water floating above your head. That’s the equivalent of 100 elephants.

So, how does that much weight stay afloat? For one thing, the weight is spread out into millions of droplets over a really big space. Some of the droplets are so small that you would need a million of them to make a single raindrop.

How much would you have guessed a cloud weighed? Want to learn more about how scientists came up with the weight? Head over to Mental Floss for more on this cool story.

72 Comments

      • Not really. An African elephant weighing over 10000 pounds, is most likely to die almost 2 weeks into elder-hood.

    • H2o weighs 8 1/3 Lb per gallon times what was that number.also steam is heavy and dense that is why it can do work. Why dont planes hit a brick wall when they fly into clouds. Because they are weightless. Weight is a funny thing it can disappear and reappear it can transfer it can multiply. Depending on gravity. Steem has no weight like clouds when it condenses it gets it weight back.ok so take a gallon of water put it in a water balloon and weigh it eight and change now steem that gallon into a balloon and oh my gosh it doesnt weigh nothin. Ok a little under a pound but not over 8?

  1. Well, there is 3.5896421501278e+20 (358,964,215,012,780,000,000 (358 quintillion)) gallons of water on Earth. So I would say that there could be as much as double that, or less then half of that, in the atmosphere of the entire planets atmosphere. (MATH) A cubic mile is equivalent to 147,197,952,000 (147 billion) cubic feet. Water weighs exactly 62.42718356 pounds per cubic foot. At said rate, a cubic mile of water would weigh 9.1891535691601e+12 (9,189,153,569,160.1) pounds. The total amount of water on the earth is about 326 million cubic miles of water. The total weight of Earths water would be 2.9956640635462e+21 (2,995,664,063,546,000,000,000 (2.995 sextillion)) pounds. One gallon of water weighs 8.3453 pounds. This means there is 3.5896421501278e+20 (358,964,215,012,780,000,000 (358 quintillion)) gallons of water on Earth.

  2. Not to sure I believe that. Is there actually an average cloud size. Look at them on an overcast day. None are the same or even that similar in size. Clouds appear to be random in size. And a cumulus cloud isn’t exactly a rain cloud. How much does a full blown cumulonimbus weigh?

  3. It is cool that a cloud can weighs 1.1 million pounds! But why and how do they get that weight? I know they have water in them but that does not seem enough! Please reply I need answers!

    • because the weight of the water vapor is spread out over such a large surface the weight on a small area (I.e that of a house) is practically nothing, whereas the total weight of all the water vapor in that area combined is pretty huge.

  4. I hope that it dose not fall on us one day. And that is so cool that a cloud weighs more than a cow ,boat, horse, and your regular teen football player. And I have a to ask you guys something . How did you figure out how much a cloud weighed and how long did it take for you to figure is out. How many days dose it take to find out how much it weighed? By: Kyla Leysath

  5. It dose not weigh nothing if it weigh 1.1million a cloud would be on the ground.So spend another year on this and I may be young but clouds would be on the ground so good luck.

  6. A cloud weighs nothing if it weigh any thing all clouds would be on the ground so you all need to spend a little bit more time on this rain may be in a cloud but rain will and will never bring a cloud down

  7. clouds weigh less than air. so they float until the water droplets form raindrops. if all the humidity or water was removed from the air and spread evenly over the entire earth it would cover the earth with about 2 inches of water. since the avg cloud weighs 1.1 million lbs that means air is actually really heavy as well. that is why it doesn’t float into outer-space.

  8. Now i do believe that a cloud can weight 1.1M pounds. I mean.. when you think about it, water is pretty heavy. When you add more and more water it can be seriously heavy. Try full up a big bucket or something with water and KABLAM. Its pretty heavy ;_;

    • Even though most clouds are very heavy, the weight is spread out for miles in the form of tiny water droplets or crystals. Those droplets of water are so small that the effect of gravity on them is negligible. That’s why clouds seem to float in the sky.

    • All of you are missing the big thing here that is water is dense then it turns into gas steem and looses its weight. Gas not liquid. Steem is a gas.

    • Well, it is mentioned by God in the Quran that clouds are heavy.

      “He it is Who shows you the lightning causing fear and hope and (Who) brings up the heavy cloud.” Quran 13:12

  9. I believe cloud have weight and in the matter how it float, maybe because it formed by tiny droplet of water, so hot air/heat pressure lifting them up to the sky (the same way to how birds take advantage of heat air pressure to float without flapping their wings)

  10. I would, love to have these for my little one’s!

    Even though most clouds are very heavy, the weight is spread out for miles in the form of tiny water droplets or crystals. Those droplets of water are so small that the effect of gravity on them is negligible. 

    See! I, didn’t. Know! That!
    Love! Ya.

  11. Liquid is heavy and gas is lighter than air when it goes from gas to liquid that is rain and the cloud gets smaller. That is why we have a ceiling

  12. so they say average cumulus cloud how many cubic feet is the average cumulus cloud and how the fricken hell did someone just brake out with a digital scale and train these clouds to float on to the scale wth is this bull crap very annoying this is very useless information unless you have a fear as a massive cumulus cloud landing on you, death by cumulus cloud lol funny dumb crap some one was defiantly high to be like hay see that cloud I wonder how much that cloud weighs I really hope it doesn’t land on me looks like it would kill me.

  13. Ok; I’m a chemist, not a mathematician. I think this is a partial explanation.
    But, the moisture in a cloud is in equilibrium with the atmosphere.
    When that is disrupted, rain drops fall due to gravity and they can be weighed.
    Maybe a more relevant question would be “how much would the moisture in that cloud weigh when it reaches the ground?”
    Think of a puddle in the Georgia mud after a downpour, then the sun comes out, it’s 95 Deg F, and the air feels thick with humidity.
    The surface immediately above the puddle is in equilibrium with 100% humidity.
    The wind blows and the surface of the puddle has ripples and the equilibrium is disrupted.
    The moisture is in the air but you can’t see it. But you feel it on your skin and in the air you breathe. You sweat and it doesn’t dry off.
    The moisture rises in the atmosphere and the air is less dense and cooler the higher it goes. This air has less capacity to hold water vapor.
    Eventually enough vapor coalesces to form droplets and you see a cloud.
    The droplets get heavy enough to fall to the earth as rain.
    They have a weight in the vapor state that you could determine if you can measure the density of the air.
    Kinda hard to wrap my brain around this. It’s complicated!

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