Clouds shooting upwards?

When flying, I notice clouds shoot upwards and look like upside down trees in single spots instead of being cotton ball oval-like. Why is this?

Clouds shooting upwards?
Those are man-made clouds, probably from some siginificant source of evaporating water, like putting out a fire. You see that a lot in a forest fire.
Reply:Also, sometimes when clouds are rapidly forming, such as during a powerful storm, moving air can push clouds upwards as the air rises. Its the same thing that can occur during a tornado, when cold air rushes to the ground, and warm air rushes up to take its place - it takes the clouds with it...
Reply:You are witnessing convection in an unstable atmosphere when you see that. Warm moist air from lower levels is rising into very cold air, and shoots upward until it reaches ambient air that is no longer colder than that %26quot;parcel%26quot; of air that is rising (i.e., the level where equilibrium occurs). The key is the moisture, because as condensation occurs, latent heat is released, further %26quot;fueling%26quot; the instability. If many factors are JUST right, one or more of those towering cumulus (cumuli?) can become a mature, tornadic supercell.





Dan, tornadoes have little to do with cold air downdrafts (other than at the rear flank of a supercell...which can enhance the vorticity...but that%26#039;s way too complicated to get into here...). Tornadoes occur mostly because of the vaccuum created at a storm%26#039;s base from the updraft within the storm%26#039;s mesocyclone. The updraft is the result of warm air rising through cold. The air at upper levels has no %26quot;need%26quot; to be %26quot;replaced%26quot;, though I notice many people seem to have that misunderstanding.
Reply:the clouds that a puffy on top like that, (look like popcorn with a flat bottom) are caused by convection. whaen the air rises into the clouds (updrafts) it gives the clouds energy causing it to get larger. making them look puffy. If the cloud gets large enough the top of the cloud can actually get flat by hitting extremely high winds in the next atmosphere.





The order usualy goes, cumulus clouds, single clouds. cumulocongestous (larger more %26quot;congested%26quot; cumulus clouds)


then cumulonimbus clouds which are the thunderstorms. that is how a single cloud can develop into a thunderstorm, if there is enough convection.





her are some pictures


cumulus clouds


http://www.erin.utoronto.ca/~w3gibo/imag...





cumulocongestous


http://home.moravian.edu/users/phys/mejj...





cumulonimbus


http://www.ece.fr/~rozanc/foudre/images/...


http://www.stchas.edu/faculty/ewilson/Ph...





all of these formations are due to convection though. warm rir rises, cooler air sinks





good luck hope this helps you =)



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