I'm hardly an expert, just an interested observer and student of airframe
icing, and this is what I have picked up over the years: Water droplets are
lifted by convective currents, which lose force as the temp within the
column of rising air nears the temp of the surrounding air. Thus, some
droplets have reached this stable state while others are playing
catch-up....thus the increase in numbers of droplets at the top. And they
bump into one another, becoming bigger droplets....but you know what happens
after that.

Bob Gardner

"Andrew Gideon" wrote in message
online.com...
Icebound wrote:

But not only that, the original air that formed the cumuluus cloud may
have come from low, warm, humid levels. If the air in the cloud started
out at, say, 20 degreec C with a 15 C dewpoint, it will have condensed
out about 11 grams of liquid water per cubic meter by the time it cooled
to -10. (This is also why the worst icing in cumuloform clouds is often
near the top.)

I'm questioning how this leads to "worse icing...near the top". I don't
see
how you got there from the above explanation. I'd guess I'm missing a
step
or two in the reasoning that you're assuming to be understood.

The condensation would be even across all altitudes of the cloud, right?
That is, a meter at the bottom and a meter at the top should be equally
wet, as the temperature change - and therefore the water condensing out -
would be the same.

So...what am I missing?

- Andrew