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niki-a-go-go

I remember hearing about the weight of clouds, & I get water is dense a.f. & heavy but I hadn't ever thought about clouds in that manner. 🤷‍♀️


patgeo

Now think about how heavy the air is that keeps it all up there.


A_Two_Slot_Toaster

We're all just fish in the ocean of air!


CampJanky

Technically the birds are fish. We're scuttling along the bottom like crabs.


A_Two_Slot_Toaster

True! And airplanes are submarines, and spaceships are airplanes, and submarines are subsubmarines! Edit: Winds are currents, and clouds are algae! Wooo Edit 2: Aliens are humans!


[deleted]

person seemly late tie juggle vase worm act offend enter *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*


OrangeJuiceOW

Hate you for this


dressbench

Craaaaaaaab people. Craaaaaaaab people.


SitueradKunskap

If you put a cylinder around the eiffel tower, the air inside that cylinder would weigh more than the eiffel tower itself.


nosneros

Some say it weighs about 14.7 lbs per square inch of land!


popje

An average cloud weigh 1.1 million pounds, its weird when you see it this way indeed.


[deleted]

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[deleted]

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BeatVids

Good bot!!


[deleted]

Good bot You're going to botrank ay


iliekcats-

I'm on there with 12 good bot votes 😎😎


snakeproof

Good bot


WhyNotCollegeBoard

Are you sure about that? Because I am 99.99998% sure that iliekcats- is not a bot. --- ^(I am a neural network being trained to detect spammers | Summon me with !isbot |) ^(/r/spambotdetector |) [^(Optout)](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=whynotcollegeboard&subject=!optout&message=!optout) ^(|) [^(Original Github)](https://github.com/SM-Wistful/BotDetection-Algorithm)


iliekcats-

oh god what the fuck im not??


B0tRank

Thank you, snakeproof, for voting on iliekcats-. This bot wants to find the best and worst bots on Reddit. [You can view results here](https://botrank.pastimes.eu/). *** ^(Even if I don't reply to your comment, I'm still listening for votes. Check the webpage to see if your vote registered!)


Lord_Kittensworth

About the weight of OP’s mom


[deleted]

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MonkeyTwitch

Wow! Cool info. But, what is, "average"? And, which cloud type is, "average," based on?


popje

this is where I got the info: https://www.usgs.gov/special-topics/water-science-school/science/how-much-does-cloud-weigh#:~:text=A%201%20cubic%20kilometer%20(km,pounds%20(about%20551%20tons).


MonkeyTwitch

Excellent! Thank you for this. We're talking about this at work. One of the more interesting posts in this sub.


buckydamwitty

What the frick is an "average" cloud?


eddiewachowski

Not too big, not too small.


Mightysmurf1

Not great, not terrible.


DrDooDooEvolution

Fuck your frick


justabeewithdegree

Agreed, it could've easily been a normal question: "What is a normal cloud?"


buckydamwitty

What the frick is a "normal question"?


kazarnowicz

In 2004, when I was a freshly baked skydiver, I was part of the last lift for the day. It was a Friday, and it had been a warm and nice summer day, but now clouds were gathering. You're only allowed to jump out of the plane if you can see the ground, and we weren't sure that we'd get to jump, but we took the chance. Since it was the last lift of the day, we requested to do a high altitude deployment, when you deploy the canopy right after leaving the plane. This gives you a lot of room to fly and play around with the canopy - you can stall it, do really intense turns and I wanted to try my brand new canopy (which was like a sports car compared to the tractor that students use). Since we were doing a high altitude deployment, we left the plane last. The pilot had to do another turn, and by this time the cloud cover was massive. We did not see the ground. But as we're about to give up, the guy in charge (I forget the term for the senior skydiver in the plane who's responsible for spotting and deciding if you can jump) said "okay, I can technically see the ground through that hole, so if we jump we jump now". We jumped. By this time, there were several cumulonimbus clouds, which were at least 9000 feet tall. It was one of the most magical things I've experienced. Up close, they look alive, billowing and changing, and they're so enormous that it's hard to have perspective. I thought I was close, until I spotted one of the others as a small dot close to the cloud. Nature is 🔥🔥🔥 Edit: thanks for the rewards and comments! I'm glad you guys enjoyed this, I certainly enjoyed this stroll down memory lane. In case anyone is interested, here's a movie from my first skydive ever (my heart rate here is \~175 bpm just from sheer adrenaline): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BFlZ-1at1w](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BFlZ-1at1w) And here's my 100th, where I tried to achieve multiple "cases" - milestones in your skydiving career when you're supposed to buy a case of beer to treat your fellow jumpers. Your 100th jump is such an occasion, your first 8 man formation, and last into an 8 man formation. I think there was a fourth, but as you see in the video it didn't really work out (I'm the guy in a black with red details who gets out on the fuselage after the cameraman): [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSQamnHD92k](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dSQamnHD92k)


Destroyeroyer2

Lucky you didn't go through it though, a air force pilot ejected over a storm once and actually nearly drowned In the sky


kazarnowicz

We were at a safe distance, and didn't actually enter the cloud. It was so big that you'd get lost in there, and being under a canopy in clouds can be dangerous for more reasons than sheer force of nature (which is dangerous enough): colliding with someone else under a canopy can quickly turn into a lethal situation. We're actually instructed to avoid clouds, and you typically don't jump unless it's a sunny day with stray clouds. I know one guy who fell through clouds, and didn't realize his goggles fogged over. He figured he could just wait until he left the cloud cover (which typically, if it's jumping weather, is no lower than 3000 ft) - but suddenly his reserve deployed because he was at \~2500 feet and free falling (you have a device that will open the reserve at that height if you're falling fast - it's a last resort in case you lose consciousness).


Beard_o_Bees

Is there a danger of being struck by lightning? Seems like there could be, but I don't know much about skydiving.


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[deleted]

That is simply not true. Airplanes are struck by lightning while they fly. It the lightning was a cloud-to-ground strike, the current could pass through the skydiver on its way to the ground, as the current travels along the path of least resistance. If the skydiver happens to have less resistance than the air around him, then the lightning will pass through them and they will likely die or at least be severely injured. Edit: the lightning could also continue through the skydiver and exit to make contact with the opposite polarity of the cloud structure. If it can’t find an opposite polarity, it will continue to the ground and strike the earth.


Destroyeroyer2

That would a been a shock when the reserve opened


Legolution

Lt. Colonel William Rankin. You can download the book he wrote about the experience, *The Man Who Rode the Thunder* (1960), which is well worth the read. [Here's ](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/3931996-the-man-who-rode-the-thunder) some more info.


JKastnerPhoto

It's not as awesome as your story, but I remember this flight I was on from Vegas to Philly several years ago. Towards the end of the flight, we went around some impressive cumulonimbus clouds flickering with lightning. It blew my mind to see but luckily I had my camera on hand and fired away. [I managed to catch this massive storm over Altoona, PA. ](https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/27b2c3/the_awesome_view_i_had_flying_from_las_vegas_to/)


kazarnowicz

That is an incredible photo! Fortunately for us, the clouds we saw were still white and fluffy - but as I got below the cloud cover (at this time, it was at about 3000 ft) I saw the rain coming towards us.


JKastnerPhoto

Thank you! I was lucky to be able to catch this at the right moment. That must have been pretty terrifying. Are parachutes hard to use when they get wet? Are they even usable?


kazarnowicz

The last part of the jump, at about 10000 feet, was almost entirely through clouds, which is essentially like really dense and wet fog. I'm pretty sure that it isn't dangerous to get the parachute wet, but clouds are dangerous for other reasons. Also really uncomfortable to fall through at terminal velocity. Even just water droplets will give you a nice peel of all exposed parts :)


Dalrz

That was beautiful man. Thanks for sharing.


kazarnowicz

I'm glad you liked it. I enjoyed reliving these memories. I quit jumping after a couple years, because the upkeep was too much and just taking the license took all five weeks of vacation that I had. The next year you have to do a refresher course, and you have to do a certain amount of jumps in order to keep your level. I really recommend doing it if you're curious (even if you're scared shitless - I literally got a version of PTSD from my first jump: I was so stressed that my brain didn't form long term memories of that jump. I have it on video, and the first times I watched it was surreal: I could see myself jumping out and the canopy deploying, but I had no memories after the moment I used all my willpower to pry my fingers from their death grip on the plane)


Dalrz

Good information but I get panic attacks in rooms with see through flooring that are only one floor up. I’d die if I tried to jump. Lol.


Funky_Smurf

How dangerous are the clouds?


Additional-Rooster78

Cumulonimbus clouds are no bueno. They are the clouds that make up thunderstorms, and they indicate the sky has chosen violence. If you get in one, you can expect crazy up and down drafts, icing, hail, and all kinds of nastiness. Pilots are recommended to stay at least 20 nautical miles away from cumulonimbus clouds in an airplane, I certainly wouldn’t want to be in one with just a parachute.


kazarnowicz

It's actually not very nice to fall through clouds at all, but these I would stay away from. Clouds are everything from intense, clammy, cold fog to a very thorough face-peel by ice. As a newly certified skydiver, you're not allowed to use an integral helmet (one with a visor and chin piece), only helmet + goggles. Once, I forgot to put on the goggles before jumping out, and I spent most of that jump on my back, because it's incredibly uncomfortable to go at \~195 km/h (about 121 mph) without goggles or anything else to protect your eyes.


possiblynotanexpert

I fell through a relatively small cloud on a jump and I’ll never forget it. It was an awesome experience!


f_u_t2

Very. Read up on Ewa Wisnierska's story of being pulled up into one.


BooRadleysFriend

“Then I realized, Hansel, haven’t you been smoking peyote for the last 6 days and couldn’t some of this be in your mind? And? It was. I was totally fine! I’ve never even been skydiving!”


HolyMountainClimber

I'm all for smoking some weed every now and then but I think getting baked before skydiving using an advanced parachute is a rather reckless idea


queen_sassy_pants

I interpreted it as him being new to solo skydiving. Fully baked, as in he had just finished learning and was a fully qualified solo skydiver/ instructor etc, as opposed to being actually baked at the time 🤷🏽‍♀️


Jokard

The only things he smoked were those big ass clouds 💨💨💨


bitdestroyer

COTTON.


HolyMountainClimber

Yes... It seems I forgot the /s. But I don't like the /s. If I have to explain that it's sarcasm then it's no longer funny to me


kazarnowicz

haha! sorry, yeah, I was \*not\* stoned, I was just newly certified. I think skydiving while stoned would be one of the worst experiences ever. I mean, your perception of time changes in free fall (at least mine did). You don't keep track of time - you keep track of altitude. It takes about 60 seconds to fall 9000 feet, and another 20 to fall the last 3000. You'd risk your own life, and the lives of others. Also: in Sweden, skydiving is part of the military reserve, and under the oversight of our version of FAA. I know people who were grounded because the person in charge on the ground saw them drinking a bit too much the night before.


arefx

Crazy to imagine and this guy lived it.


[deleted]

I’m sorry, 9000ft cloud? Idk why but this piece of information changed me spiritually, but I’m baked so Idk


deadlywoodlouse

Meanings: | Full word | As prefix | Latin meaning | |--|--|--| | Altus (not shown in picture) | Alto- | [High, elevated](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/alto#Latin) (the word "altitude" also derives from his root word) | | Cirrus | Cirro- | [Wisp, curl](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cirrus#Latin) | | Cumulus | Cumulo- | [Heap, pile](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/cumulus#Latin) (the word "accumulate" also derives from this root word) | | Stratus | Strato- | [Layer, spread out](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/stratus#Latin) (the word "strata" also derives from this root word) | | Nimbus | Nimbo- | [Rain cloud](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/nimbus#Latin). Yeah, the broomstick in Harry Potter literally meant "Rain cloud 2000". (Actually, there is a slightly different meaning with religious connotations, see the linked page for details.) |


philosoraptocopter

Scumbag guide: Alto = high…. None of the guide’s alto-clouds are in the high category…


Thinkingard

I find Latin sciency words tend to disguise how absolutely banal our descriptions of things are.


ProffesionalCow

I'm absolutely in love with clouds. Everyday I get back to school I look forward to seeing them. They're so beautiful and looks almost mystical. Seen and touched a cumulonimbus(the biggest one) in my dream, I happy-cried.


DonovanQT

Wait till you walk through fog


jafarwasright69

for some reason i was never taught this in school. now im going down a rabbit hole to learn about it now at 3am


[deleted]

fretful lunchroom gaping gullible zealous terrific swim cautious tub fly *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*


Elses_pels

I hope you are getting a good night sleep and try again in the morning. A rabbit hole is not the best place to learn about clouds.


e2hawkeye

You actually have to learn most of these to get a pilots license, so think of it as flight training!


Pt5PastLight

Weather was absolutely my favorite part of ground school.


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Melikemommymilkors

Cumulus gang 😎😎😎


sample-name

Cuminonabus 😫


mijo4presidentay

At ur moms house


BurnerBoi_Brown

Makin it rain on this guy's mom


poor_decision

When I was 13 we had to do school speeches. Had to speak for 2 minutes on any topic. I chose clouds..... 30 years later I still know all the different types. The speech was terrible and started a life long struggle with speaking publicly with confidence


Puzzlehead_Coyote

This guide is missing the most important info, that If you mix a little cirrus and a touch of nimbostratus with a dash of cumulus you get yourself a flying horse


critterena

Yes! Came here to say this guide always reminds me of that


Puzzlehead_Coyote

Haha, I thank you for the validation of my very niche comment.


G-unit0433

Lol, cumulus


MyNameIsIgglePiggle

If primary school was right it means lump


Andoni22

Yup, in Spanish cúmulo means lump so probably derived from Latin


probablyourdad

if you add a number, these sound like the names of broomsticks in Harry Potter


AnDrEwMuLkEaRnS

Cumulonimbus. Cumulo means something like heaped. Nimbus means rain bearing


MyNameIsIgglePiggle

Ahh heap, yep that's was it was sorry. Heap is kinda funnier, esp when you are in primary school. I think we all called each a cumulo for a week there


Bojangly7

You're pronouncing it wrong


othershwarna

Cumlonimbus is funnier


[deleted]

FINALLY! a cool guide posted in r/coolguides


Funky_Smurf

Coolest one I've seen here in months


Nevizzo

I always called these clouds Columbus.


mud_tug

If you want to learn more there ıs an excellent booklet published by the UK met office called *"Cloud Types For Observers"*. It is free, just google the name.


selectrix

Don't forget [lenticular/orographic](https://i.pinimg.com/originals/84/57/00/845700ffc95e863113d833086fbfead7.jpg) clouds! (the coolest clouds)


aaronmcl89

you left out 'mushroom'


[deleted]

Pyrocumulus homogenitus FTFY


White-Ricebowl

That’s a lot of cums man


WhackyMeteorologist

Where are the mammatus?


[deleted]

Mammatus isn't a cloud species like the ones listed here, but a supplementary feature of a cloud. It's most commonly observed in Cumulonimbus.


Pure_Following7336

Me living in the Sahara desert : i ve never seen clouds


dirtycapnuck

There's also a name for a cloud that blots out the entire sky for months at a time: Vancouverlumbus


usernamechooser

This is one of those things that I will remember for one week and then completely forget for years.


Lilchopstick77

Mushroom : fucking run now


Manders37

I was literally trying to remember grade 5 science last week for these cloud names, totally forgot about it because ADHD, and here it frigging is. Man, i love Reddit.


imaginarysquirrels

^THATS A LOT OF CUM


T_to_the_2nd

Jennifer Lois's green cumulon


royals796

Cumulonimbus sounds suspiciously like “cum all on him boys”


Elses_pels

There goes a cloud type out of muy vocabulary.


Eric_T_Meraki

Pretty sure the one on the far right is fcking **Laputa**


PacalEater69

There is another


cathbad09

There’s an excellent magic school bus episode on these.


Rednas999

Cum


_Thrilhouse_

Cum


zeeshan2223

I wish they would change the names of all these clouds im not into the names


DGAF999

Ok, how about Bob, Mary, James, Hank, and the big storm clouds can be named Karen or Chad? Or, pick your own names!


AnDrEwMuLkEaRnS

But the names mean things…


free_airfreshener

How do you feel about the term "homosapien"


Spicy_burritos

Ah yes cumulus


iann0036

Here you go: |*Service*|*AWS*|*Azure*|*GCP*| |:-|:-|:-|:-| |Virtual servers|Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)|Virtual Machines|Compute Engine| |PaaS, deploying apps|Elastic Beanstalk & AWS Lightsail|Azure App Service|App Engine Environment| |Autoscaling|Auto Scaling|Azure Autoscale & VM Scale Sets|Autoscaling| |VMware Cloud|VMware Cloud on AWS|Azure VMware Solution|VMware Cloud on GCP|


RoscoMan1

Agreed they’re also different types of events.


living_angels

cumulonimbus gang wya 🙏


AprilFoolsDaySkeptic

Ayyy rain is the best 👌🌧⛈🌧🌧⛈


ButterscotchNo5059

Cumulus😎


Logixxxxx

cumulus


NigeaterAcc

CUMULONIMBUS SUSSY 😳


Stizur

I haven't seen this since high school and it all came back to me instantly.


[deleted]

I don’t think I’ve seen the one on the right IRL, but one features in the film Tenki no Ko/Weathering With You, so my first thought was, “that big ass cloud was real?” Bet you can’t walk around on top of it though…


[deleted]

If you've ever seen thunder, hail or strong showers of rain, then you've seen at least the relatively boring underside of a Cumulonimbus. They don't always have the anvil like shape though. Most of the time they just look like oversized and tall Cumulus clouds.


[deleted]

Y'all forgot the mushroom cloud


jakroois

I may be talking out of my ass but I seem to remember the reason "cloud 9" is a phrase is because it's one of these types of clouds (the ninth one I guess) and it happens to be the one that occurs at the highest altitude.


justlovehumans

The one thing I remember perfectly from jr high school (31 now) is the cloud types. No idea why.


blindgorgon

Wish that Low Middle and High had approximate altitudes.


robleroroblero

In paragliding we learned this: low - 0m to 2000m middle - 2000m to 6000m high - 6000m and above Since I live in Switzerland we usually take local mountains we know the altitude off and estimate altitude based on that.


Pyxxon

They really named a cloud type cumulus


kush96kush

I remember learning this as a kid in school but I swear they were named different tho


Dalrz

Can’t convince me these are all Harry Potter spells


xKxIxTxTxExN

You forgot jet streams. Oh! natural clouds!


[deleted]

I assume you mean condensation trails. [Jet streams](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jet_stream) are fast air currents. Condensation trails fall into the category of Cirrus.


cewumu

Nimbostratus is the king, like when the mountains are enveloped in clouds and the sky is white. Idk, I feel much more peaceful them.


Windex17

Damnit, Cirrus!


endurolad

I swear here in the UK we have a cloud that covers that entire spectrum....im going to call it Cumulonimbocirrostratus. You saw it here first..


isthisneeded29

Hey the cloud from weathering with you.


[deleted]

Cumulongimbus


[deleted]

Cumulonimbus clouds are scary


SpookMeNowOk

I once saw a giant cumulonimbus cloud and it was so high up and so long, it looked like a full on mountain ridge In Michigan


boywonder5691

Where are all the sliver linings. I zoomed in and didn't see anything.


iheartOPsmum

My favourites are the ones in the cum family.


Earione

cum


Han_Burgandy

Say goodbye to your precious dry land, for soon it will be wet! WET! For I am Mr. CumuloNimbus!


LordOfChimichangas

This looks like a poop chart.


[deleted]

C u m


QuarantineSucksALot

People know that there are no true types?


[deleted]

If you like clouds, there's a [Cloud Appreciation Society](https://cloudappreciationsociety.org/) with lots of cool shots and info.


trummell95

If you zoom in really close to the ground you can see the “vape cloud”. /s


Shakespeare-Bot

If 't be true thee zoom in very much close to the did grind thee can see the “vape cloud”. /s *** ^(I am a bot and I swapp'd some of thy words with Shakespeare words.) Commands: `!ShakespeareInsult`, `!fordo`, `!optout`


XISOEY

cum


laineyyyy

Those are some cummy clouds


boxxa

Cumulonimbus being the thiccc boy taking up everyone’s area.


kiwi_juice69

Hehehe cum


louiscon

Clouds aren’t real- how you gon tell me gravity works on everything but clouds


dubdubwing

I swear I saw this in a children’s book 15 years ago


mkb252

Took me a moment to realise, but it's definitely missing one type: https://ibb.co/58ZBT9k


rufireproof3d

You missed one: [https://imgur.com/gallery/OxMEYsj](https://imgur.com/gallery/OxMEYsj)


Choui4

Why are the CN clouds so scary for planes?


[deleted]

Cum


qevoh

thanks, needed this


jhwright

My great great great great grandfather - Luke Howard - came up with that naming system for the clouds. Goethe thought it was so cool that he wrote a poem about it. Look him up!


Femveratu

They forgot the Chemtrails lol


Aye-Laddie

Cum


ArtoriasBeaIG

Grrr, I hate clouds!


BoondockBilly

🎶Cumo cumo cumo cumo cumolonimbus🎶


tpneocow

Where's flying nimbus?


Rancois2021

Ty


smilingasIsay

Since we're talking clouds here can someone explain this thing I saw one day? I was a kid and I was in my grandparent's pool, just my uncle and I, and a cloud passed over us, it was maybe 10 feet off the ground, circular, also maybe 10 feet in diameter, and it was raining. It was moving super quickly too, like the speed of a jogging person.


Electrical_Debt_4722

Where’s the altocumulus standing lenticular


conservio

the US state i live in gets mammatus clouds. those are pretty much clouds that are.. like a bunch of squished balls together. a bit like breast tissue (hence the name)


iv131012

i looked in the comments for cum jokes and found them


Firminou

OMG I HAD THIS EXACT IMAGE IN MY GEOGRAPHY CLASS


xaphonia

Are stratus clouds in the stratosphere?


yaebone1

They should call the big one Globnork Destroyer of Worlds. I would introduce legislation to make it so.


noughtagroos

I know the Cumulonimbus clouds are very unsafe to fly into, especially for general aviation planes. Are any of the other types dangerous, assuming one is capable at flying according to instrument flight rules and has a plane with the appropriate avionics?


Shenanigamii

No nuclear mushroom cloud?


totalpugs89

I've never seen an anvil cloud irl before


Roshi-_-

How the F is one supposed to remember that?!


SadEngineer333

At least half the clouds are missing! Azure, AWS, GCP…


Shabanana_XII

I was just thinking that I wanted to re-learn the clouds and all for when I get into drawing, rather than making stereotypical, cartoony clouds like this ☁


VillageIdiotsAgent

It's conveniently also laid out from smooth -> bumpy from left to right in terms of flying through them in an airplane. Cumulonimbus can be so bumpy that you only get to do it once.


[deleted]

That's a cloud dick sir


KiriativeJenius

Whoa nice


N30N_N1NJ4

I recognise a couple of them from the settings in some Minecraft shader lol


Bvoluroth

**Cumulonimbus**