Precipitation
Precipitation (pre-sip-uh-tay-shun) is any form of water that falls to the
Earth's surface. Different forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, hail, snow, sleet, and freezing rain.
Precipitation is
important because it helps maintain the atmospheric balance. Without
precipitation, all of the land on the planet would be desert.
Precipitation helps farmers grow crops and provides a fresh water supply
for us to drink.
Precipitation can also be damaging. Too much rain and snow can cause severe
flooding and lots of traffic accidents. Hail can damage crops and cars.
Freezing rain and sleet can destroy trees and power lines.
The opposite of precipitation is evaporation.
Shop Windows to the Universe Science Store!
Cool It! is the new card game from the Union of Concerned Scientists that teaches kids about the choices we have when it comes to climate change—and how policy and technology decisions made today will matter. Cool It! is available in our
online store.
You might also be interested in:
Drizzle is light precipitation that is made up of liquid water drops that are smaller than rain drops. Drizzle can be so light that only a millimeter of water falls to the Earth's surface in one day. It
...more
Rain is precipitation that falls to the Earth in drops of 5mm or more in diameter according to the US National Weather Service. Virga is rain that evaporates before reaching the ground. Raindrops form
...more
Sleet forms when a partially melted snowflake or raindrop turns back into ice as it is falling through the air. Sleet starts out in the clouds as a snowflake or a raindrop. If it starts out as a snowflake,
...more
One process which transfers water from the ground back to the atmosphere is evaporation. Evaporation is when water passes from a liquid phase to a gas phase. Rates of evaporation of water depend on things
...more
Here's a neat experiment that makes rain in a jar. Plus you get to tell your parents or teacher what to do! You will need a parent or teacher, a jar with a metal lid, 1 cup of water, a hammer, a nail,
...more
Stratocumulus clouds belong to the Low Cloud (surface-2000m) group. These clouds are low, lumpy, and gray. These clouds can look like cells under a microscope - sometimes they line up in rows and other
...more
Radar is important to weather forecasters because it can detect rain and hail. The radar bounces radio waves off water particles in clouds. A computer measures how long it takes for the radio waves to
...more
