Why Do Clouds Turn Gray? The Science Behind Cloud Color Changes Revealed

KOMPAS.com – In general, clouds are considered to have a white color.

Atmospheric particles and cloud particles have different roles in causing changes in sky color.

Also read: Why Don’t Clouds Fall to the Ground?

The sky appears blue because atmospheric particles tend to scatter blue light more than other colors.

Meanwhile, the particles in the cloud do not choose the color of the light they spread, instead they spread all the colors evenly.

When sunlight passes through clouds these particles come together to create white light.

However, when rain comes, the color of the clouds can change to gray.

So, why do clouds turn gray?

Gray rain clouds are caused by their thickness or height, quoted from Live Science, Tuesday (19/12/2023).

When a cloud gets thicker as it collects more water droplets and ice crystals, the light it scatters also increases.

As the thickness increases, less light can penetrate the cloud.

The bottom of a rain cloud, which has particles that are less able to scatter light, looks gray when viewed from the ground below.

This effect becomes more pronounced as water droplets grow larger, for example before they fall as rain.

Also read: It looks very light, but it turns out the weight of the clouds can reach hundreds of tons

Larger water droplets become more efficient at absorbing light than scattering it, causing the gray color of increasingly thick rain clouds.

Reporting from Britannica, Tuesday (19/12/2023), the color of the clouds depends on sunlight.

So clouds appear gray when they block sunlight.

The thicker the clouds, the more light they block.

When the clouds are about 3,000 feet (about 900 meters) thick, almost no sunlight can penetrate the clouds.

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2023-12-25 04:00:00
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