Zoom your camera out with the scroll button. They can cover a large area. The opposite could also be happening... the cloud is far away. If you just did insert and everything is at 000 as stated then  the corner with manipulator on it would be right in front of you. Keep in mind the bounding boxes don't really show the full cloud coverage depending on what type of cloud you select. In other words that box could cover a huge area, but render a smaller cloud. Depends on your settings for the cloud type.

No need to think outside the box....
    Just make it invisible.