MACON, Ga. — Cumulus clouds are the very common puffy clouds you see on a partly cloudy day, but have you ever wondered WHY they’re puffy and not flat?
To fully understand why, we need to start with the basics of the water cycle. The three main elements of the water cycle are evaporation, condensation, and precipitation.
When the surface of a body of water gets hot enough, the liquid water transitions into water vapor. Then, the warm water vapor rises into the sky.
As the vapor ascends, the particles cool and condense. The particles begin to build on top of themselves and form piles of cooled water droplets.
Like building blocks, the small piles stack on top of one another and create that fluffy look we traditionally see in cumulus clouds.
The word "cumulus" is Latin for "accumulation, heap or pile," which directly describes the cloud's structure.
So, those little pieces of white cotton candy in the sky are fluffy thanks to water vapor and the water cycle.
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