are formed and shaped according to definite systems andcertain steps
connected with certain types of wind and clouds.
One kind of rain cloud is the cumulonimbus cloud. Meteorologists have
studied how cumulonimbus clouds are formedand how they produce rain,
hail, and lightning.
They have 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 pushessome small pieces of clouds (cumulus clouds) to
an area where these clouds converge
2) Joining: Then the small clouds join together forming a larger cloud
3) Stacking: When the small clouds join together, updrafts within the
larger cloud increase. The updrafts near the center of the cloud are
stronger than thosenear the edges. These updrafts cause the cloud body
to grow vertically, so the cloud is stacked up. 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.
Allah has said in the Quran:
"Have you not seen how God makes the clouds move gently, then joins
them together, then makes them into a stack, and then you see the rain
come out ofit...." (Quran, 24:43)
Meteorologists have only recentlycome 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 itsdirection, 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 blindsthe sight."
(Quran, 24:43)
Meteorologists have found that these cumulonimbus clouds, thatshower
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..." 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 factorin producing lightning? Let us
seewhat the book entitled Meteorology Today says about this. It says
that a cloud becomeselectrified 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 surface of the hailstone warmer than that of the
surrounding ice crystals. When the hailstone comes in contact with an
ice crystal, an important phenomenon occurs: electrons flow from the
colder object toward the warmer object. Hence, the hailstone becomes
negatively charged. The same effect occurs when supercooled droplets
come in contact with a hailstone and tiny splinters of positively
charged ice break off. These lighter positively charged particles are
then carriedto the upper part of the cloud by updrafts. The hail, left
with a negative charge, falls towards the bottom of the cloud, thus
thelower part of the cloud becomes negatively charged. These negative
charges are then discharged as lightning. We conclude from this that
hail is themajor factor in producing lightning.
This information on lightning was discovered recently. 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 neighbouringclouds, 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.
Credit: Kh. Al-Harbi, Makkah, SaudiArabia.
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