Incoming shortwave radiation generated by the Sun reflects back as longwave radiation when

it reaches the Earth's surface; a process that warms the air closest to the ground. This warm
air tends to absorb moisture in the form of invisible water vapor from bodies of water, moist
ground, and from plants. Warm moisture-laden air is inherently unstable and tends to rise to
higher altitudes where the surrounding air is colder. Atmospheric pressure decreases with
altitude, so when air rises, it expands in a process that expends energy which causes the air to
cool.

Cold air holds less water vapor than warm air, so clouds are formed when the air is lifted and
cooled to the point at which it begins to shed vapor it can no longer retain. This is the
saturation temperature which is also known as the dewpoint temperature. The altitude of the
saturation level determines the altitude of the cloud base. The vapor begins to condense onto
airborne hygroscopic particles like dust and salt from sea spray and becomes visible as cloud.
Very small water droplets form at lower altitudes below the freezing level and ice crystals or
sometimes supercooled water droplets at higher altitudes. This process of cooling and
condensation continues until the air achieves temperature equilibrium with the surrounding
atmosphere and stops rising. The altitude of equilibrium tends to determine the altitude of the
cloud tops, although if the vertical air currents have become very strong, momentum can push
the tops to even higher altitudes.

The droplets or crystals that make up a cloud are typically about 0.01 mm (0.00039 in) in
diameter. If these continue to grow in size, a process facilitated by strong upward lift and
abundant condensation particles, they will eventually become too large and heavy to be
supported by the upward air currents and fall to the ground as precipitation. If sufficient
condensation nuclei are not present at and above the saturation level, the rising air becomes
supersaturated and the formation of cloud is inhibited. The most common agents of upward
motion causing condensation are spontaneous convective lift caused by daytime solar heating
of unstable air at surface level, lift along a weather front or around a cyclonic low pressure
area (anticyclonic in the southern hemisphere) that forces a stable or unstable airmass ro rise
over top of a cooler airmass, and orographic lift of the air over mountains.

Colder air at surface level absorbs less moisture than warm air and thus tends to be more
stable. If this type of airmass moves over water, it may become more unstable and subject to
spontaneous convective lift; otherwise it requires the external forces of frontal, orographic, or
cyclonic lift to trigger cloud formation. At the other extreme, if an airmass that is already
warm and unstable is subjected to the additional forces of a strong external lifting agent like a
fast moving cold front, the results can be explosive with very powerful air currents resulting
in the formation of severe thunderstorms and tornados.