<p>What proportion of the water in a cloud will 'rain out'?</p>

<p>Or, comparing the cloud before and after it has rained, what proportion of the water is left afterwards?</p>

<p>I really have no idea so am just looking for an order of magnitude range, is it 50%, 1% or something tiny like 0.00001%?</p>

<p>Edit: I wanted to leave the specifics to the answerer, but maybe an easier question is the difference in amount of water (any form) above the surface before and after rain.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-03-23T14:36:59.363Z
I'm not sure this can be answered. For most clouds, the answer is 0%, because they don't actually generate rain. For those that do produce rain, what would constitute "100%"? Draining all the liquid droplets from the cloud? Leaving the air's relative humidity at 100%, or at the same level as surrounding air, or at zero?
jeffB
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-03-24T22:35:32.530Z
@jeffB sure, anything! I do not even know enough to ask the right question, so please feel free to fill in the blanks! gansub had a useful answer but it has disappeared...
Evan Benn
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-03-26T06:49:52.447Z
you need to give a lot more information in the question like temparature-pressure and the speed of condensation-wind speed-turbidity and lots of other information,and the answer to this will be for this spesific situation only.
trond hansen
CC BY-SA 4.0
2019-03-27T00:23:48.467Z
I am trying to emphasise that I am looking for a vague, order of magnitude, make whatever assumptions you want answer. I understand that the question is not well defined, and the answer is extremely complex. I only want literally any tidbit of information on the topic. Fill in the blanks however you like!
Evan Benn
<meteorology><clouds><rainfall>
Roughly what proportion of a cloud does 'rain out'?
Evan Benn
# Roughly what proportion of a cloud does 'rain out'?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2019-03-22)

What proportion of the water in a cloud will 'rain out'?

Or, comparing the cloud before and after it has rained, what proportion of the water is left afterwards?

I really have no idea so am just looking for an order of magnitude range, is it 50%, 1% or something tiny like 0.00001%?

Edit: I wanted to leave the specifics to the answerer, but maybe an easier question is the difference in amount of water (any form) above the surface before and after rain.

**Tags:** meteorology, clouds, rainfall

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: I'm not sure this can be answered. For most clouds, the answer is 0%, because they don't actually generate rain. For those that do produce rain, what would constitute "100%"? Draining all the liquid droplets from the cloud? Leaving the air's relative humidity at 100%, or at the same level as surrounding air, or at zero?  
> **username_0**: @username_1 sure, anything! I do not even know enough to ask the right question, so please feel free to fill in the blanks! gansub had a useful answer but it has disappeared...  
> **username_2**: you need to give a lot more information in the question like temparature-pressure and the speed of condensation-wind speed-turbidity and lots of other information,and the answer to this will be for this spesific situation only.  
> **username_0**: I am trying to emphasise that I am looking for a vague, order of magnitude, make whatever assumptions you want answer. I understand that the question is not well defined, and the answer is extremely complex. I only want literally any tidbit of information on the topic. Fill in the blanks however you like!  

---

## 0 answers

