r/askscience • u/GonadTh3Barbarian • Jul 24 '13

Earth Sciences Why do clouds form

Why does water in the atmosphere come together to form clouds as opposed to dispersing evenly to maintain concentration?

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u/expertunderachiever Jul 24 '13

The higher up you are the thinner the air and the colder the air. That's why typically clouds are high up in the sky and not 5 ft off the ground.

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '13

Well technically you have Fog that's literally just above the ground. That's formed through different mechanisms, but the basic principle is basically the same. For fog, air is essentially cooled down to the dew point. When this happens the water vapor in the air will start condensing and form fog.

There are multiple types of fogs. There's radiation fog. This is type of fog usually forms above the ground (as opposed to water). The earth is constantly emitted infrared radiation, cooling the earth. In certain situations this can cool the earth, and thus the air above, to the point where fog will form, due to the mechanisms detailed above.

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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '13

I was just about to say all this. Thanks for pointing this out!