Supercooled clouds

The cooling of a liquid to a temperature lower than its normal freezing temperature is called supercooling.

A supercooled cloud is containing pure water droplets at temperatures considerably below the nominal freezing temperature of 0°C. With very pure water (i.e. free from pollutants), supercooling of liquid drops can occur down to around minus 40°C. Altocumulus clouds, for example, are usually composed of water droplets at temperatures well below zero.


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