• Question: why are clouds black

    Asked by sard520sang to reedozretich, rachelwynnsayers, Martin M, Ling L, Jenny, Adriana F on 15 May 2025. This question was also asked by what520sang.
    • Photo: Martin McCoustra

      Martin McCoustra answered on 15 May 2025:

      I must admit that most of the clouds I see in the sky are fluffy white things. They are white because they scatter all colours of light equally. I guess when a cloud gets dark and angry looking before a storm that the water and ice droplets in the cloud are less uniform in their scattering and may indeed be absorbing some light reducing the intensity of the scattered light.

Comments

  • Photo: aureliabrzezowska

    aureliabrzezowska commented on :

    Clouds may seem black at times due to an absence of light. When it is super duper sunny, clouds can block a lot of the light that is coming in causing things to seem sombre and sad. When clouds are more concentrated with rain and mass, they do this even more which is why they seem extra dark during storms!