What does a storm cloud weigh?


Since this is the season around here for frequent thunderstorms.. I thought it might be interesting to look at what a typical storm cloud might ‘weigh’.  These things are floating above our heads.. and it’s just not something most people ever think about.  They are all unique of course.. so here are some baselines.

A storm cloud that is 1 sq/mi and 33k feet tall (medium height for what we get this time of year) with an average density would hold about 563 million pounds of water.  That’s equivalent to 644 fully loaded 747 jets or almost 3 Nimitz class aircraft carriers.

One inch of rain that falls on a 1 sq/mi area is about 17.4 million gallons of water which weighs about 145 million pounds.

A related stat.. if you made a tube around the Eiffel Tower in Paris.. the air inside the tube would weigh more than the tower.

Currently Reading:

• ‘The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable’