Unexplainable Cloud atlas
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Feb 2, 2026 Angeline Pendergrass, climate physicist at Cornell who studies chaotic cloud behavior. Umair Irfan, Vox science reporter who investigated cloud science and interviewed researchers. They explore why clouds are so hard to predict, how tiny droplets lead to large-scale chaos, and why clouds are a major source of uncertainty for future warming.
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Flying Into Thunderstorms
- Tom Warner flew a vintage 1949 propeller plane into towering cumulonimbus storms to study them up close.
- He described loud hail, St. Elmo's fire, and lightning strikes that melted small metal parts but rarely harmed the plane.
Clouds Are Water On Aerosol Seeds
- Clouds form when water vapor condenses onto tiny aerosol particles like dust, salt, pollen, or pollution.
- A cubic kilometer cloud can hold about a million pounds of water, explaining why clouds can seem weightless yet contain vast water volumes.
Clouds Behave As Chaotic Systems
- Billions of interacting droplets create chaotic, emergent cloud behavior that's hard to predict from single-droplet physics.
- Small microscopic differences can amplify quickly and change cloud outcomes over kilometers and continents.