What color are clouds?

Question

Are they gray?or are they white?do they look white because the sun hits them?or not?

Answer 1

welp, i dont think you can get a better answer than the first one.

but hey, i just got 2 points!

Answer 2

cloud color is a little more in depth...but cloud brightness is an easy one.

Clouds usually look gray when we are directly underneath them. This is because sunlight does not shine directly on the bottom of clouds, but rather shines through the tops of clouds.

Sunlight gets blocked more when the cloud is thicker. So the bottom of the cloud looks dark. If the cloud is thin, it may appear more white because there is less cloud matter to block sunlight.

If you are under a tall dark cloud, wait until it passes, and look at it's side. The side of the cloud will be illuminated by sunlight, and thus all white. So, the brightness of the cloud (white versus gray or black) has a lot to do with where you are standing and the thickness of the cloud.

Sunlight has to travel thousands of feet through the cloud to our eyes. As the light travels through the thick cloud it gets scattered, absorbed, and reflected away from our eyes. In the end, this means that less and less light reaches our eyes.

Answer 3

Clouds usually look gray when we are directly underneath them. This is because sunlight does not shine directly on the bottom of clouds, but rather shines through the tops of clouds.

Sunlight gets blocked more when the cloud is thicker. So the bottom of the cloud looks dark. If the cloud is thin, it may appear more white because there is less cloud matter to block sunlight.

If you are under a tall dark cloud, wait until it passes, and look at it's side. The side of the cloud will be illuminated by sunlight, and thus all white. So, the brightness of the cloud (white versus gray or black) has a lot to do with where you are standing and the thickness of the cloud.

Sunlight has to travel thousands of feet through the cloud to our eyes. As the light travels through the thick cloud it gets scattered, absorbed, and reflected away from our eyes. In the end, this means that less and less light reaches our eyes. Notice the picture below.

However, if the cloud is thin, then we will see much more of the light, and the cloud will appear much more white...like the picture below.

And finally, if you aren't underneath the cloud...then the tall and thick cloud is illuminated by sunlight. This light does not travel through the cloud, but rather reflects off the side of the cloud and into your eyes. (Remember, all colors of light are reflected equally, that's why it's white). However,if you walked underneath this cloud, it would look much darker.

The cloud below is bright white from our perspective!



Notice that so far I am not really talking about color, but more about the brightness of clouds. That's because the reason for the color of clouds is much more complicated.

Answer 4

Clouds vary in darkness, depending upon height and thickness. They are white or gray usually. Clouds that are carrying large amounts of rain have a bluish hint to them. Very tall cumulonimbus clouds appear as a dark gray. During sunsets and sunrises, clouds can appear as pink, orange, red, and other colors because of optical effects. There's even been green clouds because of hail.

Answer 5

The color of a cloud depends on your location in relation to the cloud and to the thickness of the cloud. Clouds are composed of visible water vapor and, depending on the altitude and type of cloud, they can also be composed of ice crystals (which will give an even brighter appearance). As the first answerer noted, thin clouds will appear white in color if they're thin and darker if they are thicker clouds (e.g. thunderstorm clouds). If you've ever flown in an airplane above a layer of clouds, you'll notice that they always appear white as they are reflecting light from the sun as the water vapor molecules are a good reflector of light.