01The sign
In the Quran clouds have weight. Skeptics claim if clouds had weight they would have fallen to the ground. Today scientists confirm that clouds are very heavy.
02Scientific evidence
"How much does a cloud weigh? Do you think clouds have any weight? How can they, if they are floating in the air like a balloon filled with helium? If you tie a helium balloon to a kitchen scale it won't register any weight, so why should a cloud?... Doing the math: 1,000,000,000 x 0.5 = 500,000,000 grams of water droplets in our cloud. That is about 500,000 kilograms or 1.1 million pounds (about 551 tons)."
So the clouds turned-out to be very heavy. Average cloud above your head weighs about 100 elephants. This was known recently, however this was portrayed in the Quran 1400 years before it was discovered.
03Qur'an passage · Quran 13:12
هُوَ الَّذِي يُرِيكُمُ الْبَرْقَ خَوْفًا وَطَمَعًا وَيُنْشِئُ السَّحَابَ الثِّقَالَ ١٢
It is He who shows you the lightening, causing fear and hope. And He produces the heavy clouds.
04Reflection
"Thikal ثِّقَالَ" means heavy. Here the clouds have weight. Today we know that clouds are not weightless as previously thought but rather are very heavy.
Additional references
Original article: Miracles of Quran. The scientific excerpt retains its USGS credit. The summaries and Quran context below are separate additions.
Additional evidence — summary
The USGS calculation uses an example cumulus cloud with a volume of 1 cubic kilometre and 0.5 grams of liquid water per cubic metre. Multiplying gives 500,000 kilograms of water droplets. This is an example, not the average weight of every cloud; cloud size and water content vary. The original’s 551 tons are US short tons, equivalent to about 500 metric tonnes. The calculation counts the droplets, not the surrounding air.
Additional evidence — summary
حَتَّىٰٓ إِذَآ أَقَلَّتۡ سَحَابٗا ثِقَالٗا
Meaning of the excerpt from 7:57: “until they carry heavy clouds”. The verse connects winds, rain-bearing clouds and water that brings growth to dry land. It gives a further Quranic setting for reflecting on heavy clouds.
Additional evidence — summary
Ibn Kathir explains the heavy clouds in 13:12 as clouds laden with rain. This supports the ordinary meaning of the Arabic wording. It does not give a numerical cloud mass. The USGS measurement explains the physical example; it does not establish the original article’s claim about when people first knew clouds had weight.
05 · Ponder