Notes on Precipitation

Many natural phenomena occur regularly in nature. It is so obvious that everyone can experience those phenomena all the time. It is so obvious that the ordinary happening things remain unnoticed. Precipitation is one of them.

Precipitation is the term that gets used for the event of water falling on to the earth from the sky. This can be of many different types. And precipitation goes on a cycle basis. Once the water gets on the earth from the sky, the water again gets vaporized and goes into the sky. From there, it precipitates again.

What is Precipitation

Precipitation is that particular event in which the waterfalls from the sky on the earth. It can be of various types. The types depend on the condensation of the water. There are clouds on different levels of the sky. They have different heights as well. Precipitation happens from the clouds of eight to sixteen kilometres up from the ground. These clouds are basically in the troposphere of the earth.

Mechanism of Precipitation

Firstly, water needs to get vaporized; then, this vapour needs to go high enough to get condensed. Once it cools down, it mixes with other elements in the sky and takes liquid form. Two different precipitation reaction examples can make the vapour into water molecules as the vapour can’t get transformed into water molecules directly. The air needs to be cold enough, or the vapour needs to go to cold air. 

Types of Precipitation

Like most other natural events, precipitation also has some different types. As per the type and state of molecules, this can be classified into different types. Also, the time length of precipitation can create different types.

Some of the common types of precipitation are rain, showers, snowfall, drizzle, sleet, hail, and many more. Also, different types of precipitation have different types of temperatures.

The most common form of precipitation is rain. When vapour turns into water molecules and comes to the earth from the sky, it is known as rain. In the rain, the water molecules get to the earth rapidly. When rain occurs in a very small area for a short time, it is known as a shower.

Drizzle is another type of precipitation where the drops of water are very small. This type of precipitation has a slower falling rate on the earth than rain.

The other most common type is snowfall. At a higher altitude, where the normal temperature is very low, the water molecules come in the form of ice or ice dust. This type of precipitation is known as snowfall.

Measurements

As there are some water molecule droplets connected to the precipitation, it is required to measure the quantity of precipitation. There are some different ways of measuring the amount of precipitation. The liquid and the solid precipitation get measured differently.

The water gets measured by the rain gauge, and the snow gets measured by the snow gauge. Also, precipitation gets measured in the unit of a millimetre or mm. Also, there are some other instruments like wedge gauge, tipping bucket rain gauge, and weighing rain gauge.

Precipitation Cycle

Precipitation has a particular cycle in which this process goes on. Firstly, the water gets vaporized, then it goes higher up and reacts with other substances and forms clouds. These clouds come to an area with cold air. Here, the vapour gets condensed; it then under its weight, precipitates. Again, the water gets vaporized. And hence, the cycle goes on.

Conclusion

Precipitation is one of the most regular natural events taking place. This phenomenon has so many types and factors that you need to take care of these events. Also, the precipitation types get differentiated by the state of water, period of precipitation, and even the size of water droplets.

Precipitation gets measured in millimetres and generally with the help of a rain or snow gauge.