[mchannon]

You're taking something simple and making it very complicated.

The reason clouds form is not because there's more water up there, but because temperatures and pressures are lower and the air can't hold on to the water anymore, and the water separates into droplets of liquid water or ice.

There's plenty of water at ground level, even in lip-cracking low humidity, as long as it's not also freezing.

The trick is getting what water there is to leave the air and to collect in your bucket, and collecting a meaningful amount.