• Question: why are clouds white?

    Asked by sebisepic to Jen, Jill, Mel, Phil, Stef on 17 Mar 2013.
    • Photo: Jennifer Paxton

      Jennifer Paxton answered on 17 Mar 2013:

      Ohhh I think this has to do with the clouds reflecting light from the sun?

      Light consists if all the colours of the rainbow ( red, yellow, pink, green, orange, purple and blue) but when they are together and not separated they make white light. Clouds are made up of water droplets and these don’t scatter or separate the light so the cloud looks white!

    • Photo: Stefan Piatek

      Stefan Piatek answered on 19 Mar 2013:

      I’m with Jen on this, if they’re really thick then instead of reflecting light back, they can bend it away from us and that’s why they can look grey or black

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