Naked Science Forum
Life Sciences => The Environment => Topic started by: neilep on 23/08/2009 01:21:22
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Dearest Rainologosts and interested Royals (Reignologists)
As a sheepy I of course luff rain.....rain is my all time favourite type of rain cloud precipitation !..clouds are great too cos they look like me without legs !
Look, here's some rain clouds ..
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It looks Like Rain Dear !!
Nice eh ? being delivered the next first Tuesday of next years Wimbledon so that they get some decent use of the new roof !
I have a question or three !
How can it rain for such a long period of time ?..last week..we had rain that lasted many many hours !..how can this happen ?...is there rain up there that has to sit around for hours before it drops ?
And why does not a cloud dump all it's rain at once ?
If I was to sit inside a very rainy cloud...would I drown ?..Would the rain be racing around in all directions ?
As a firm believer in empirical study I snuk into my neighbours house at 3am this morning and armed with a sack full of soaking wet cotton wool and a plastic box.......... my neighbour (without protestation) allowed me to chloroformingly subdue him and encase his head inside my plastic box filled with soaking wet cotton wool. He then happily allowed me to force him into his shower which he gleefully stood in whilst cold water rained upon him......... I turned the light on and off all the time whilst banging cymbals against his plastic box wool soaked head. He was grateful for the chains that prevented him from slipping and enabled him to stay there for two hours ! He must have been really enjoying himself because he mistakenly thought I was a nobleman...he kept saying " ewe're a count...ewe're a count " over and over again !!......It was a bit muffled but I am sure this is what he was saying...bless him !!
Whilst this was going on he enjoyed it so much that he could not bring himself to answer my questions...so..no luck there !
Can ewe help me with the nature of my cloud and rain related questions ?
hugs & shmishes
mwah mwah mwah
neil
To assist my neighbour with the nature of rain
I pooped and blocked his outside drain
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I cannot answer all your questions neil, but here's one answer:
The rain doesn't dump all it's water at once because:
Inside the cloud, it always rains. Water vapor rises from the bottom of the cloud to the top, condenses and falls back to the bottom of the cloud, where it (mostly) vaporizes again and repeats this cycle.
Some conditions however, make it so that not all rain becomes vapor again in the bottom of the cloud, and then it falls down to earth, which we know as rain.
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I cannot answer all your questions neil, but here's one answer:
The rain doesn't dump all it's water at once because:
Inside the cloud, it always rains. Water vapor rises from the bottom of the cloud to the top, condenses and falls back to the bottom of the cloud, where it (mostly) vaporizes again and repeats this cycle.
Some conditions however, make it so that not all rain becomes vapor again in the bottom of the cloud, and then it falls down to earth, which we know as rain.
Thank ewe Nizzle !!..luff the name..Nizzle is great !
Ewe may not have all the questions but ewe have been extremely informative in the ones you have.
I imagine the density of water within the cloud must be a lot denser though. Ok, I don't expect I go for a swim but there must a whole bunch of water fun going on in there !
thank ewe again [;)]
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No problem neilep,
And i think you'd be ice skating in a cloud before you'd be swimming in one
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I have a feeling that Latent Heat is involved. When water condenses, thermal energy is released and this delays the local drop in temperature.
It's along the same lines as when you put some water in the freezer - it doesn't freeze all at the same time and the rate of freezing/ condensation depends on the rate that heat is removed.
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The length of time that it rains for is generally dependant on the type of cloud that rain is falling from.
for example Stratus and Stratocumulus clouds are shallow, have weak updraughts and have small water content. The precipitation is formed by coalescence and produces a fine mist like rain. Often called scotch mist.
prolonged rain is more often than not caused by Thick and multilayered cloud systems. Crystals falling Cirrostratus clouds may fall in to a lower layer of super cooled layer Altocumulus. Once in the Altocumulus they rapidly grown in to snowflakes. These fall and turn to rain.
The depth of the layers of cloud will be proportionate (!) to the length of rain.
Cumuloform types are more commonly what produce your short sharp summer showers.
If you were to sit inside a very rainy cloud...would you drown ?
Well, no. Walking through fog is like walking through a stratus cloud. One airforce pilot has even fallen through a very active Cumulonimbus cloud when he had to eject from his plane. He almost froze to death and got battered by the wind and hail but he did not drown.