PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Do the clouds cause the turbulence or vice versa
Old 16th Jun 2018, 10:32
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Uplinker
 
Join Date: Nov 1999
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As I understand it; clouds form owing to the local humidity of the air and the presence of condensate nuclei - e.g. small particles of dust or similar?

I too have noticed that flying through some clouds in an otherwise smooth sky can result in sudden turbulence within the cloud but in others, not. I did wonder if this is due to the changes of density within the cloud affecting the lift produced by the wing but some clouds produce no turbulence at all, whereas others can produce catastrophic turbulence e.g. Cumulo Nimbus, which we all avoid of course.

Perhaps the reason is that some clouds, such as the CuNb also have strong updrafts but others, e.g. Cirrus have none, and only those clouds with updrafts produce turbulence?
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