The Scientific Miracles in the Holy Qur’an (4)

G) The Qur’an on Clouds:

Scientists have studied cloud types and have realized that rain

clouds are formed and shaped according to definite systems and

certain 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 formed and

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 pushes some small pieces of clouds

(cumulus clouds) to an area where these clouds converge (see

figures 17 and 18).

  

Figure 17: Satellite

photo

showing the

clouds moving

towards the

convergence

areas B, C, and

D. The arrows

indicate the directions

of the wind. (The Use

of Satellite Pictures

in Weather Analysis

and Forecasting,

Anderson

and

others, p. 188.)

 Figure 18: Small pieces of clouds (cumulus clouds) moving towards a convergence

zone near the horizon, where we can see a large cumulonimbus cloud. (Clouds and

Storms, Ludlam, plate 7.4.)

2) Joining: Then the small clouds join together forming a larger

cloud (see figures 18 and 19).

Figure 19: (A) Isolated small pieces of clouds (cumulus clouds). (B) When the small

clouds join together, updrafts within the larger cloud increase, so the cloud is stacked

up. Water drops are indicated by. (The Atmosphere, Anthes and others, p. 269.)

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 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.)

God has said in the Qur’an:

{ 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 of it....} (Qur’an, 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. } (Qur’an, 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 Qur’an said: {And He sends

down hail from mountains (clouds) in the sky} (see figure 21).

 Figure 21: A cumulonimbus cloud. (A Colour Guide to Clouds, Scorer and Wexler, p.23.)

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 factor in producing lightning? Let us see what the book

entitled Meteorology Today says about this. It 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 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

carried to the upper part of

the cloud by updrafts. The

hail, left with a negative

charge, falls towards the

bottom of the cloud, thus the

lower part of the cloud becomes

negatively charged. These negative

charges are then discharged as lightning. We conclude from this

that hail is the major 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 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 Qur’an’s revelation, fourteen

centuries ago.