The Quran on Clouds

Details mentioned in the Quran about 
cloud formation , more than 1400 years , 
was recently discovered by science

Scientists have studied cloud types and have realized that rain clouds are formed and shaped according to definite systems and certain steps associated with certain types of wind and clouds

A kind of rain cloud is the cumulonimbus . Meteorologists have studied how cumulonimbus clouds are formed and how they produce rain , hail and lightning. rain
They found that cumulonimbus clouds go through the following steps to produce rain :
1) The clouds are pushed by the wind: Cumulonimbus clouds begin to form when wind pushes some small pieces of clouds ( cumulus clouds) to an area where these clouds converge (see figures 1 and 2).

 

Figure 1: Satellite photo showing the clouds moving towards the convergence areas B , C and D. The arrows indicate the wind direction. (The use of satellite photographs Analysis and Forecast , Anderson and others, p. 188. ) rain

Figure 2 : small pieces of clouds (cumulus clouds ) moving towards a convergence zone near the horizon, where we can see a large cumulonimbus . (Clouds and Storms , Ludlam , plate 7.4 . )

2) Start: Then the small clouds join together forming a large cloud [See The Atmosphere, Anthes and others, pp. 268-269, and Elements of Meteorology, Miller and Thompson, p. 141] ( see Figures 1 and 2) rain

Figure 2: (A ) Isolated small pieces of clouds (cumulus ) . (B ) When the small clouds join together, rising on increasing large cloud currents, so the cloud is stacked. Water drops are indicated with • . ( Atmosphere , Anthes and others . P 269. )

 

3) Stacking : When the small clouds join together , updrafts in raising big cloud . The updrafts near the center of the cloud are stronger than those near the edges. [The updrafts near the center are stronger, because they are protected from the cooling effects by the outer portion of the cloud] These currents cause the body to grow vertically cloud so the cloud can be stacked ( see Figures 2 ( B ) , 3 and 4 ) .

This vertical growth causes the cloud body to stretch into cooler regions of the atmosphere, where drops of water and hail begin to grow larger and larger . When these drops of water and hail become too heavy for the updrafts to support them , they begin to fall from the cloud as rain , hail, etc. [See The Atmosphere, Anthes and others, p. 269, and Elements of Meteorology, Miller and Thompson, pp. 141-142 ]

Figure 3: A cumulonimbus . After the cloud is stacked up, 

rain comes from it. (Weather and Climate , Bodin , p.123)

Figure 4: A cumulonimbus . ( A color guide Clouds , Scorer and Wexler , p. 23).

 

God says in the Quran:
" Have you not seen how God drives the clouds gently , then joins them together , He did a lot , and you see the rain come out of it .... " (Quran 24:43 )

Meteorologists have recently come to know these details of cloud formation , structure and function by using advanced equipment like planes, satellites, computers , balloons, and other equipment, to study wind and its direction , to measure humidity and variations , and to determine the levels and changes in air pressure [See Ee’jaz al-Quran al-Kareem fee Wasf Anwa’ al-Riyah, al-Sohob, al-Matar, Makky and others, p. 55] .
The preceding verse , after mentioning clouds and rain , hail and lightning talks :

".... And He sends down hail from mountains ( clouds) in the sky , and He strikes with it whomever He wills , and turns it from whomever He wills . If the flash of its lightning nearly blinds the sight " . (Quran 24:43 )

Meteorologists have found that these cumulonimbus clouds, that shower hail , reach a height of 25,000 to 30,000 feet ( 05.07 miles 04.07 ) , [Elements of Meteorology, Miller and Thompson, p. 141 ] as the mountains , as the Quran says: " ... And He sends down mountains hail ( clouds) in the sky ... "(see Figure 4).
 
This verse may raise a question . Why does the verse say " its lightning " in a reference to the hail? Does this mean that hail is the major cause of lightning? See what the book entitled Meteorology Today says about this. He says that a cloud becomes electrified as hail falls through a region in the cloud of supercooled droplets and ice crystals .

As liquid droplets collide with a hailstone , they freeze on contact and release latent heat. This keeps the warm surface surrounding the ice crystals hail . When the hail comes in contact with an ice crystal , an important phenomenon occurs: electrons flow from the hotter to the colder object. Therefore, the negatively charged hail . The same effect occurs when supercooled droplets come in contact with a hailstone and tiny splinters of positively charged ice break. These lighter positively charged particles are transported to the top of the cloud updraft . The hail, left with a negative charge , falls toward the bottom of the cloud, so that the bottom of the negatively charged cloud . These negative charges are discharged as lightning. [Meteorology Today, Ahrens, p. 437 ] We conclude that hail is the major cause of lightning.
This information on lightning recently been discovered . Until 1600 AD , Aristotle's ideas on meteorology were dominant. For example , he said that the atmosphere contains two kinds of exhalation , moist and dry . He also said that thunder is the sound of the collision of the dry exhalation with the neighboring clouds , and lightning is the inflaming and burning of the dry exhalation with slight fine fire . [The Works of Aristotle Translated into English: Meteorologica, vol. 3, Ross and others, pp. 369a-369b ] These are some of the ideas on meteorology that were dominant at the time of the revelation of the Qur'an fourteen centuries ago .