why do clouds form over mountains?
364366
As air rises to get over the mountain, it cools.  Cooler air can't carry as much water vapor as warmer air, so cloud droplets form.
87651
A cloud forms when moisture-laden warm air rises in a column expanding and cooling with higher elevation until cool enough to condense moisture and produce a visible cloud.  The cloud is not held together but forms over the rising thermals.  When a plane flies through a cloud the ride is bumpy as it hits the various thermals feeding the cloud.  You can ride in a sailplane at Elmira, NY which will glide in a circle and actually rise without power under a forming cloud.
502136
Actually, it is the rotation of the earth that causes weather and then clouds.\nThe clouds move across the sky as a result of differences in heat between regions. All of the matter around the earth is held to it by gravity. However, clouds "float" in air. So they will move at slightly different speeds. \n\nEver watch when they stir a milkshake? the different colors all swirl similarly.
588652
They end up becoming the 'seeds' of clouds.  That is, water in the air condenses around them, & once the process starts, those condensation  trails sometimes form into clouds up to 500 miles long.\n\nI read about it in, I believe, Popular Science a couple years ago.  There was also a fascinating article about a study that took place during the 3 days in 9/01 when all planes in the U.S. were grounded:  due apparently to the reduced cloud cover, temps everywhere were a couple degrees higher those days!
601596
Clouds form when the invisible water vapor in the air condenses into visible water droplets or ice crystals. This can happen in three ways.\n\n1. The air is cooled below its saturation point. This happens when the air comes in contact with a cold surface or a surface that is cooling by radiation, or the air is cooled by adiabatic expansion (rising). This can happen\n\nalong warm and cold fronts (frontal lift), \nwhere air flows up the side of a mountain and cools as it rises higher into the atmosphere (orographic lift), \nby the convection caused by the warming of a surface by insolation (diurnal heating), \nwhen warm air blows over a colder surface such as a cool body of water. \n2. Clouds can be formed when two air masses below saturation point mix. Examples are breath on a cold day, aircraft contrails, and Arctic sea smoke.\n\n3. The air stays the same temperature but absorbs more water vapor into it until it reaches saturation.\n\nThe water in a typical cloud can have a mass of up to several million tonnes. However the volume of a cloud is correspondingly high, and the net density of water vapor is actually low enough that air currents below and within the cloud are capable of keeping small droplets suspended. As well, conditions inside a cloud are not static: water droplets are constantly forming and re-evaporating. A typical cloud droplet has a radius on the order of 1 x 10-5 m and a terminal velocity of about 1-2 cm/s. This give these droplets plenty of time to re-evaporate as they fall into in the warmer air beneath the cloud.\n\nMost water droplets are formed when water vapor condenses around a condensation nucleus, a tiny particle of smoke, dust, ash, or salt. In supersaturated conditions, water droplets may act as condensation nuclei.\n\nWater droplets large enough to fall to the ground are produced in two ways. The most important is through the Bergeron Process, theorized by Tor Bergeron, in which supercooled water droplets and ice crystals in a cloud interact to produce the rapid growth of ice crystals, which precipitate from the cloud and melt as they fall. This process typically takes place in clouds with tops cooler than -15°C. The second most important process is the collision and wake capture process, occurring in clouds with warmer tops, in which the collision of rising and falling water droplets produces larger and larger droplets, which are eventually heavy enough to overcome air currents in the cloud and the updraft beneath it and fall as rain. As a droplet falls through the smaller droplets which surround it, it produces a "wake" which draws some of the smaller droplets into collisions, thus perpetuating the process. This method of raindrop production is the primary mechanism in low stratiform clouds and small cumulus clouds in trade winds and tropical regions, and produces raindrops of several millimeters diameter.\n\n \nThis wave cloud pattern formed off of the Île Amsterdam in the far southern Indian Ocean.The actual form of cloud created depends on the strength of the uplift and on air stability. In unstable conditions convection dominates, creating vertically developed clouds. Stable air produces horizontally homogeneous clouds. Frontal uplift creates various cloud forms depending on the composition of the front (ana-type or kata-type warm or cold front). Orographic uplift also creates variable cloud forms depending on air stability, although cap cloud and wave clouds are specific to orographic clouds.
480792
Deserts can form in several ways that I know of...\n\nRainshadow effect on the leeward side of a mountain range. Most of the water is wrenched out of the air masses before they reach the other side of the range. This is due to the lifting of the air. It is forced to rise, condenses due to adiabatic cooling, & precipitates.\n\nThe most influential cause would be high pressure belts located around the world. These places are roughly located around the tropics of cancer & capricorn. In these areas, the high pressure is pushing down air. When there is a continuous belt of high pressure, air doesn't rise. If air doesn't rise then clouds can't form & rain won't happen. The Sahara & the Kalahari in Africa are examples.\n\nAnother would be inland deserts. They are so far removed from sources of moisture that they simply never get any. If I am not mistaken, the Gobi Desert is one.
408184
BECAUSE THOSE AREAS MIGHT HAVE HIGH HILLS WHERE THE CLOUDS HIT HARD AND RAIN .MIGHT BE THE LOW AREAS AND FINALLY DUE TO CLOSE TO SEAS
630793
Clouds are formed by water vapor. And high pressure can hold more water vapor. So when vapor moves into a low pressure system it condenses and and forms clouds and those clouds precipitate when the system cant hold no more water vapor
479562
Clouds are formed when water vapour in the air is cooled and condenses as part of the water cycle. Clouds consist of billions of tiny water droplets (and even ice crystals) floating in the sky and appear in a variety of shapes and sizes depending on how and where they formed.
297833
Clouds are made of water vapor.  You inhale clouds every time you walk into a patch of fog, because fog is just a cloud at ground level.  Clouds are formed when water evaporates from the surface of the Earth and makes its way upward.  The water condenses and we get a cloud.  When clouds get too laden with water, it falls in liquid form and we get rain.
380819
when clouds melts then it rains,its the water cycle...water evaporates due to heat n goes up n along with dust particles  it forms what we called clouds n these clouds keep floating n when temperature rises n clouds reach certain atm. pressure due to it melting,,raining occurs
606380
Clouds are tiny droplets of water that have condensed on condensation nuclei such as pollen, dust, ash, & pollution in the troposphere.\n\nB/c they are very tiny and independant of each other, they tend to be suspended. This is due to various things such as updrafts, winds, etc. They are very lightweight. Only when they begin to start growing in size will gravity take over & they start to fall as rain.
173251
A cumulonimbus cloud forms in rising air (updraft).  The air cools as it rises, and at a certain point the water vapor in the air condenses into water droplets, forming a cloud.  Around a large Cb there is often downdraft - the air gets warmer as it subsides, and any water droplets (=clouds) will evaporate.
292918
It tends to be over land, because precipitation forms because of water saturation of the atmosphere; this doesn't really change too much on the open ocean.  But inland, there is a loss of water saturation, therefore clouds containing saturated water will tend to precipitate water (rain).
1034117
no clouds are not solid they are made  up of water  vapor and gas. Clouds are formed when air contains as much water vapor (gas) as it can hold. This is called the saturation point, and it can be reached in two ways. First, moisture accumulates until it reaches the maximum amount the volume of air can hold. The other method reduces the temperature of the moisture filled air, which in turn lowers the amount of moisture it can contain. Saturation, therefore, is reached through evaporation and condensation, respectively. When saturation occurs, moisture becomes visible water droplets in the form of fog and clouds.\n\nIt should be noted that condensation by itself does not cause precipitation (rain, snow, sleet, hail). The moisture in clouds must become heavy enough to succumb to gravity and return to earth's surface. This occurs through two processes. In cold clouds ice crystals and water droplets exist side by side. Due to an imbalance of water vapor pressure, the water droplets transfer to the ice crystals. The crystal seventually grow heavy enough to fall to earth. In the second process, water droplets in warm clouds collide and change their electric charge.Droplets of unlike charge attract one another and merge, thereby growing until they have sufficient weight to fall.\n\nThere is no difference between fog and clouds other than altitude. Fog is defined as a visible moisture that begins at a height lower than 50 feet. If the visible moisture begins at or above 50 feet, it is called a cloud. Two common types of fog are called radiation fog and advection fog. Radiation fog forms during the night as the earth's surface cools and the air immediately above it cools in turn by conduction. If the air is moist enough, the cooling causes it to reach saturation and visible water droplets form. We often call this type of fog ground fog because it lies so close to the surface. Advection fog forms when warm moist air moves over a colder surface (advection means to move horizontally). A perfect example is on the west coast of continents. Prevailing westerly winds move moist air from over a warm ocean area to over the colder waters off the coast. Fog forms and is carried by the westerly over the land.\n\nClouds can form anywhere in the troposphere, and although condensed liquid, they are light enough to float in the air and move from place to place by the wind. Clouds are classified according to appearance and height. Based on appearance, there are two major types: Clouds of vertical development, formed by the condensation of rising air; and clouds that are layered, formed by condensation of air without vertical movement. When clouds are classified by height, there are four classes: high, middle, low, and vertical development.\n\nCloud names, of which there are twelve, combine appearance and height. A brief description of the root name will indicate this combination of features.
570440
Moisture..\n\nWind is wind... It's the wind chill factor and depends upon moisture on your body or moisture in the air.\n\nThe moisture either on your body or blown onto your body will be evaporated by your body. This uses up a lot of energy in the form of heat.\n\nMountains..\n\nIf mountains are near you and you are getting wind from the mountain range, chances are this wind will be hot and dry.. The wind hitting the other side of the mountains will loose all its moisture in preciptiation as the air rises and cools quickly causing the rain.. The wind coming from the mountains will be dry and warm.\n\n\nBlowing towards the mountains, the wind will be moist and back up to the top...
884394
Mountains can affect the weather and climate of an area.  The mountians create updrafts, rainshadows, and other phenomena.\nMountains also affect the flow of people, ideas, and things impacting travel and transportation