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Precipitation and condensation occur on the surface of contact when two air masses collide due to differing densities and temperatures.
The contact surface is referred to as a “Front” or “Frontal Surface,” and the precipitation is referred to as “frontal precipitation.”
A ‘Cold Front’ occurs when a cold air mass drives out a warm air mass, while a ‘Warm Front’ occurs when a warm air mass replaces the retreating cold air mass.
On the other side, if both air masses are driven towards a low-pressure area at the same time, the front that forms is called a ‘Stationary Front.’
The precipitation from a cold front is intense in a narrow area, whereas the precipitation from a warm front is less intense but dispersed over a greater area. Warm fronts move more slowly than cold fronts.
Precipitation requires the following items:
- This form of rainfall occurs at the point where a warm and cool air mass collides.
- When two huge air masses of different temperatures collide, the warmer air is lifted above the colder air, making it lighter.
- Warm air rises, cools, and condenses, resulting in rain.
- A front is a physical border that separates cold and warm air.
After knowing what frontal precipitation is, let’s discuss its causes!
Causes of precipitation
Water droplets or crystals condense out of air saturated with water vapour and fall from the sky to the earth, causing precipitation. It can happen when the amount of water vapour in the air increases due to evaporation or when the air cools and its ability to hold water reduces.
Clouds are the source of precipitation. Clouds are regions of the atmosphere where moisture has condensed into little water droplets or ice grains. Water is present in all clouds. However, not all clouds generate precipitation.
Different Precipitation Types
Following are the three basic types of precipitation,
- Cyclonic Rainfall: A cyclonic downpour occurs when air masses rise due to pressure differences. When a low-pressure area forms, air from the surrounding places flows into the low-pressure zone.
It is a phenomenon that causes warm and cold air to collide. Warm air rises over cooler air because it is lighter than colder air. The warmer air then begins to cool below the saturation limit, resulting in heavy rain. Cyclonic Rainfall is the name given to this type of rainfall.
- Convective Rainfall: Convective Precipitation, also known as Convectional Rainfall, is most common in tropical regions. The sun heats the surface areas in these zones on a regular and consistent basis.
As a result, the air around the surface becomes despised and spreads. Heating makes the air lighter, which causes it to ascend. As the air rises, it begins to cool and eventually reaches its saturation point, resulting in precipitation.
Convention Precipitation is a type of precipitation that happens in the tropics on hot days. Aircraft are at risk from rising vertical velocities of air currents. It can range from mild showers to cloud bursts in severity.
- Orographic Rainfall: Orographic Precipitation happens when a moist mass of air collides with natural topographic obstacles. These barriers, such as mountains and hills, cause the air to rise, concentrate, and precipitate. As a result, mountains receive more precipitation than plains.
The precipitation is concentrated on the windward side, which is also the side where striking happens. The leeward side, on the other hand, receives very little rain, resulting in the formation of a rain shadow zone.
Forms of Precipitation
After discussing what is frontal precipitation, let’s talk about the forms of precipitation;
Sleet
When rain falls through the air at a subfreezing temperature, it freezes into translucent raindrops.
Glaze
When rain or drizzle comes into contact with the cold ground (about 0°C), it becomes drizzle. Glaze, sometimes known as freezing rain, is formed when water drops freeze into ice covering.
Rime
It’s a white, opaque layer of ice grains separated by trapped air and created by supercooled water drops impinging on exposed objects freezing quickly: The specific gravity of a substance can range from 0.2 to 0.3.
Dew
Dew is formed directly on the ground by condensation, which occurs primarily at night after the surface has been cooled by outgoing radiation.
Hail
It is a kind of showery frontal precipitation in the form of irregular ice pellets larger than 8 mm in size. Hail can fall during intense thunderstorms with strong vertical currents.
Drizzle
Drizzle is a fine mist containing multiple water droplets with a diameter of less than 0.5 mm and an intensity of less than 1 nm/h. The drips are so tiny at this point that it seems that they are floating.
Rain
In India, rain is the most common form of precipitation. Rainfall occurs when the size of a water drop is more than 0.5 mm. A raindrop’s maximum size is roughly 6 mm. During its descent from the sky, any drop larger than this size tends to split down into smaller droplets. Rainfall can be characterised as light, moderate, or heavy, depending on its intensity.
Conclusion
Any liquid or frozen water that develops in the atmosphere and falls back to Earth is referred to as precipitation. Only a few instances include snow, rain, and sleet. Precipitation is one of the three major segments of the global water cycle, along with evaporation and condensation. The lifting of lighter warm wet air over more dense cold air causes frontal precipitation. The majority of storms in the Great Plains are cyclonic. The lifting or upward movement of air that is warmer and lighter than its colder, denser surroundings causes convective precipitation.
