Does skydiving through clouds make you wet?
Question
This is something my grandson asked me and I couldn't answer. If you jumped out of a plane with a parachute and went through a cloud, would you get wet?
Margaret, Maidstone
Answer
** Joint Definitive **
Name: Howard, Heathrow
Qualification: Airline pilot and student of meteorology
Answer: Moisture collects around particles in the atmosphere - that's what gives you rain. Whether it rains depends on whether it's the adiabatic lapse rate or saturated lapse rate, whether that moisture crosses over and falls as rain. If it's rain, you're going to get wet as you fly through the cloud, if it's not crossed over, you're going to get the moisture content, but it won't get you wet. Having said that, you can get updraughts in some clouds near the Equator that are strong enough to pull the rain back up into the clouds.
** Joint Definitive **
Name: Paul, Littlehampton
Qualification: Skydiver
Answer: It depends whether it is a raincloud or not. Obviously you'd
get wet if it was a raincloud, but a normal cloud would be like going
through mist or fog, so no, you wouldn't get wet.
Name: Paul, Hampton
Qualification: Pedant
Answer: You don't jump when there is cloud about, as you don't know what's above or below you. So the rules state that this isn't possible.
(James O'Brien - This is a literal response to an entirely theoretical question)
Name: Dave
Qualification: Joker
Answer: I'm a skydiver and have jumped through clouds. I didn't get wet, but that could be because I had an umbrella!