Precipitation
Precipitation 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.
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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 accumulation is measured at the Earth's surface.
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Rain is precipitation that falls to the Earth in drops of 5mm or greater in diameter according to the US National Weather Service. Virga is rain that evaporates before reaching the ground. Raindrops form
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Sleet forms when a partially melted snowflake or raindrop turns back into ice as it is falling through the air. This happens when there are different layers of air beneath the cloud and these layers have
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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 factors
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