Liquid Water Content and the Adiabatic Model of Cumulus Development

The literature shows considerable disagreement concerning the liquid water contents found in cumuliform cloud and the relation of observed values to those deduced from the adiabatic model. The present paper describes some observations in which two methods of measuring liquid water have been used simultaneously and found to be in good general agreement. However, the two methods employed very different averaging periods, so that individual measurements were not strictly comparable. These results, and the observations of other workers, are discussed in relation to the general level of liquid water in cumuliform cloud and its variability in space.