Imagine fl ying through a cloud. It’s nothing like fl oating on a fl uff y pillow. Cold water droplets drench you. Winds spin you around. What a wild ride! It may sound odd to think of


clouds this way. Not everyone notices clouds, but I love them. I’ve spent so much time studying them, I’ve become an expert. Join me now as I travel the world, searching for fantastic clouds.


Learning About Clouds I’ve seen puff y, white clouds that look like herds of sheep. I’ve seen clouds that look like spoonfuls of whipped cream. I’ve seen others that blanket the ground. T e more clouds I see, the more I


want to learn about them. I want to know how clouds form and why they come in so many shapes and sizes. It’s all in how Earth’s major systems, water, land, and air, interact.


A Cloud Forms Earth’s water is always being recycled. It goes from bodies of water, up to the atmosphere, then back down to Earth again. T is is the water cycle. As the sun shines, it warms the water in rivers, lakes, and the ocean. Some water gets so warm that it evaporates, or changes into a gas, called vapor. Water vapor rises in the sky. As the vapor rises, it expands. T at


causes it to cool. As the vapor cools, it turns back into drops of water. T ese water droplets cling to bits of dust in the air. Millions of droplets together form a cloud.


3 The water droplets cling to dust in the


atmosphere, forming clouds.


4 Rain, sleet, hail, or snow falls from


clouds.


18


Fun Fact


At any moment, clouds cover 70 percent of Earth.


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