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When the small clouds join together updrafts within the
larger cloud increase. The updrafts near the center of the cloud are stronger
than those near the edges. These updrafts cause the cloud body to grow
vertically, so the cloud is stacked up (see figures 19 (B), 20, and 21). This
vertical growth causes the cloud body to stretch into cooler regions of the
atmosphere, where drops of water and hail formulate and 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.
Figure
20: A
cumulonimbus cloud. After the cloud is stacked up rain comes out of it. (Weather
and Climate, Bodin, p. 123.)
Figure
21: A
Cumulonimbus cloud. (The Science and Wonders of Atmosphere, Gedzelman, p.
194.)
Allah said in the Quran:
"Have you not seen how Allah makes the clouds move gently, then joins
them together, then makes them into a stack, and then you see the rain come out
of it... " ( Quran, 24:43)
Meteorologists have only 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 its variations, and to determine the levels
and variations of atmospheric pressure.
The preceding verse, after mentioning clouds and rain, speaks about hail and
lightning:
"... 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. The
vivid 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 ft (4.7 to 5.7 miles), like mountains, as the
Quran said, "... And He sends down hail from mountains (clouds) in the sky..."
(see figure 21).
This verse may raise a question. Why does the verse say "its
lightning" in reference to the hail? Does this mean that hail is the major
factor in producing lightning? Let us see what the book, entitled Meteorology
Today, says on this. It says that the clouds become electrified as hail
falls through a region in the cloud of super cooled droplets and ice crystals.
As liquid droplets collide with a hail, they freeze on contact and release
latent heat. This keeps the surface of the hail warmer than that of the
surrounding ice crystals. When the hail comes in contact with an ice crystal, an
important phenomenon occurs: electrons flow from the colder object toward the
warmer object. Hence, the hail becomes negatively charged. The same effect
occurs when super cooled droplets come in contact with piece of hail and tiny
splinters of positively charged ice break off. These lighter, positively charged
particles are then carried to the upper part of the cloud by updrafts. The hail,
left with a negative charge, falls toward the bottom of the cloud, thus the
lower part of the cloud becomes negatively charged. These negative charges are
then discharged to the ground as lightning. We conclude from this that hail is
the major factor in producing lightning.
This information on lightning was discovered recently. Until 1,600 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 a
thin and faint fire. These are some of the ideas on meteorology that were
dominant at the time of the Quran’s revelation, fourteen centuries ago.
The source of this article is www.islam-guide.com
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