You will definitely get cold and wet when skydiving through a cloud, no matter what type of cloud it is.
The experience of skydiving through clouds depends on the type of cloud. Photo: Skydive Langar
The experience of falling through a cloud will depend on the type of cloud, your gear, and the weather conditions. But the end result is generally soaking wet, freezing cold, and even unconscious, according to those who have experienced it.
Clouds form when water molecules condense around airborne particles called aerosols, and the nature of those particles affects the type and size of the cloud. But “not all aerosols are created equal,” says Marilé Colón Robles, an atmospheric scientist at NASA’s Langley Research Center in Virginia who studies clouds.
Some natural aerosols, such as dust, often promote the formation of ice particles, while seawater vapor contributes to the formation of water molecules. Scientists have also experimented with injecting artificial aerosols into the atmosphere, including silver or lead iodides, to produce dense, light-colored clouds that reflect solar radiation or produce rain and snow.
Since skydivers are falling from 4,000 meters, they are most likely to encounter thick stratus and flat-bottomed cumulus clouds. Both of these clouds are composed primarily of water molecules. When they appear above 1,980 meters, they are called altostratus and altocumulus to mark their location in the atmosphere.
Ryan Katchmar, a Utah-based skydiving instructor who has completed 10,000 jumps, stresses that people shouldn’t try to fall through clouds because there’s no way to monitor for potential hazards, including other jumpers or planes. But sometimes they can’t avoid it. “It feels like nothing else,” Katchmar says. “You fall through a white room and then you come out at the bottom. If it’s a thick, dark cloud, you’re soaked.” He likes to feel the humid but fresh air in the area.
Katchmar has also experienced sudden cold conditions. For this reason, skydivers often cover up to avoid injury from exposed skin. On a recent jump in Utah, while filming another skydiver, Katchmar noticed that the woman’s nose and cheeks had turned white from ice forming around her as she fell through the clouds.
The most extreme situation for skydiving in bad weather involves thunderstorms. Inside a storm cloud, hot air can rise at speeds of up to 100 mph, but at high altitudes, the particles fall as rain or hail. Additionally, most of the lightning that occurs during thunderstorms occurs within or between the clouds.
Only two people have survived parachuting through thunderclouds. In 1959, American Lieutenant Colonel Henry Rankin bailed out of a fighter plane in rough weather and spent 40 minutes inside a thundercloud, suffering frostbite and nearly drowning before ejecting more than a hundred metres above the ground and crashing into a treetop. Decades later, in 2007, paraglider Ewa Wiśnierska was accidentally swept into a thundercloud while training for the world championships. Wiśnierska lost consciousness from lack of oxygen and landed several hours later 60 kilometres away.
An Khang (According to Live Science )
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