• 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.

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