ASK THE METEOROLOGIST
Aidan, Bellview Elementary
First we’ll explain how we get clouds, because this well help you to understand how and why their bases tend to be flat … The sun everyday heats the earth’s surface. Even when there are clouds present, the sun is heating the air. This leads to warming near the ground that then will then lead to tiny bubbles of air that rise. These bubbles rise because they become warmer than the air surrounding them. (Remember, warm air rises).
We refer to these rising bubble as thermals. As these thermals rise, they cool (because air cools with height) and condense. When condensation occurs a cloud droplet forms ….with enough cloud droplets present, we see a cloud!
The level at which this condensation happens at tends to be uniform in a general area, meaning it’s roughly the same. This level is called the “lifted condensation level.” This is the reason cumulus clouds all tend to have the same base level ..and a flat one. You’ll often notice there isn’t cloud cover below a certain level, and that is because the air simply isn’t moist enough to lead to condensation. Once the particles rise to a higher altitude, they’ll condense.
Meteorologist Alyssa Caroprese