Question: What are clouds made of?

Angus Ferraro answered on 25 Jun 2013:

Clouds are made of tiny droplets of water, just the same as the steam coming out of a kettle.

All air has water in it, but it’s not liquid water. It’s water in the form of a gas, which we call ‘water vapour’. It’s not wet, becuase it’s a gas. Clouds form when air cools. Colder air can hold less water vapour, so some of it condenses out into liquid droplets.

Although clouds look nice and fluffy from here, they can be quite violent places! This is because one of the main ways the air cools in clouds is rising motion, which reduces the pressure. This produces a lot of turbulence, which is why planes tend to fly around clouds if they can. Some clouds are very turbulent and difficult to fly through.