3.

PRECIPITATION

• Precipitation is any type of water that forms in Earth's atmosphere

and then drops onto the surface of Earth. Water vapor, droplets of
water suspended in the air, builds up in Earth's atmosphere before
precipitating.
• Water vapor in the atmosphere is visible as clouds and fog. Water
vapor collects with other materials, such as dust, in clouds.
• Precipitation condenses, or forms, around these tiny pieces of
material, called cloud condensation nuclei (CCN).
• Clouds eventually get too full of water vapor, and the precipitation
turns into a liquid (rain) or a solid (snow).
• Precipitation is part of the water cycle. Precipitation falls to the
ground as snow and rain. It eventually evaporates and rises back into
the atmosphere as a gas. In clouds, it turns back into liquid or solid
water, and it falls to Earth again. People rely on precipitation for
freshwater to drink, bathe, and irrigate crops for food.

• The most common types of precipitation are rain, hail, and snow.
• Rain
• Rain is precipitation that falls to the surface of Earth as water
droplets. Raindrops form around microscopic cloud condensation
nuclei, such as a particle of dust or a molecule of pollution.

• Rain that falls from clouds but freezes before it reaches the ground is
called sleet or ice pellets.

• Even though cartoon pictures of raindrops look like tears, real

raindrops are actually spherical.
• Hail
• Hail forms in cold storm clouds. It forms when very cold water
droplets freeze, or turn solid, as soon as they touch things like dust or
dirt. The storm blows the hailstones into the upper part of the cloud.
More frozen water droplets are added to the hailstone before it falls.

• Unlike sleet, which is liquid when it forms and freezes as it falls to

Earth, hail falls as a stone of solid ice.

• Hailstones are usually the size of small rocks, but they can get as large
as 15 centimeters (six inches) across and weigh more than a pound.
• Snow
• Snow is precipitation that falls in the form of ice crystals. Hail is also ice, but
hailstones are just collections of frozen water droplets. Snow has a complex
structure. The ice crystals are formed individually in clouds, but when they
fall, they stick together in clusters of snowflakes.
• Snowfall happens when many individual snowflakes fall from the clouds.
Unlike a hail storm, snowfall is usually calm. Hailstones are hard, while
snowflakes are soft.
• Snowflakes develop different patterns, depending on the temperature and
humidity of the air.
• When snow falls in the form of a ball instead of soft flakes, it is called graupel.
This happens when snow is melted and precipitation forms around the snow
crystal.
• Snow requires temperatures at the ground to be near or below freezing—less
than 0-degrees Celsius (32-degrees Fahrenheit). Snow that falls on warmer
ground melts on contact.
• Other Types of Precipitation
• Sometimes, different types of precipitation fall at the same time. During harsh
winter storms, for instance, it is not unusual for sleet and rain to fall at the same
time.

• Other times, precipitation doesn't fall at all. Virga is a type of precipitation that
begins to fall from a cloud, but evaporates before it reaches the surface of Earth.

• Human activity can create precipitation. Urban heat islands, which are areas
around major cities that are much warmer than their surroundings, lead to
increased and more intense rainfall near cities.

• Global warming also causes changes in global precipitation. When the planet is
hotter, more ice evaporates in the atmosphere. That eventually leads to more
rainy precipitation. It usually means wetter weather in parts of North America,
for example, and drier conditions in tropical areas that are usually humid.
Types of formation of rain:
1.Orographic or Relief Rainfall occurs
when warm moist air that has been
blowing over bodies of water is forced to
rise on reaching physical barriers such as
highlands. The rising air cools at about 1
degree Celsius per 100 metres and
condenses when relative humidity is at
around 100%. The water droplets
formed in water vapour clouds
eventually grow heavier as more and
more condensation occurs until gravity
pulls them down to the Earth as rain.
The side of the mountain that is
continually subjected to the prevailing
winds is called the windward side. The
opposite or leeward side is where the
dry air descends after its moisture has
been released in the form of rain
showers.
2.Convectional Rainfall occurs over land that
is subjected to the Sun's intense heat.
Terrestrial radiation coming form Earth's
surface heats up the lower levels of the
atmosphere. This warm air (sometimes
called thermals) begins to rise through the
atmosphere at speeds of up to 25 metres per
second due to its low pressure until it
reaches a level where it starts to cool
adiabatically. On reaching saturation point
water droplets form in clouds, eventually
leading to rainfall. Convectional rainfall can
become intense if there is steady stream of
warm rising air to fed a cumulonimbus cloud.
However, the heavy rainfall will eventually
cool the ground, effectually shutting off the
supply of warm air needed to fuel more
showers. Convectional rainfall is therefore
notorious for being intense but brief
thundershowers that occur in the afternoon
after maximum diurnal temperature has
been reached
3. Frontal or Cyclonic Rainfall occurs at
the boundaries of two air masses of
varying temperatures and densities. One
air mass is usually forced upwards and
over the other and this instability leads
to the development of showers,
following the rising, cooling and
condensation process. Often at a cold
front the lighter warm air is pushed over
the heavier and denser cold air mass.
However, at times a mass of warm air
moves faster than the colder air thereby
vertically displacing it at the boundary.
There are several permutations of
cyclonic weather when warm and cold
air masses interact differently. These
include weather conditions associated
with cold fronts, warm fronts, quasi-
stationary fronts and occluded fronts.
4.Thunderstorms develop where ideal conditions
exist for the following:
- continuous updrafts of warm moist air high
into the troposphere
- rapid condensation and downdrafts of
super.cooled air and water to produce heavy
rainfall and gusty winds
- the creation of an electrical field within
cumulonimbus cells, where varying temperatures
along with rising and falling water droplets
produce negative and positive electrons that
interact with each other (hence lightning and
thunder)
Thunderstorm intensity and duration are affected
by several factors including the height of the cloud
- upper atmospheric temperatures below freezing
cause water to cool more rapidly and heavier
precipitation can produce large droplets or hail;
the tilt of the cloud - so that the downdrafts do
not cancel out the updrafts; the heat and
moisture source as well as the degree of instability
in the atmosphere which work together to fuel
2.1.2.4 Hurricanes and Typhoons
Hurricanes, typhoons, or tropical cyclones develop
over tropical oceans that have a surface water
temperature greater than 29°C (84°F). A hurricane has
no trailing fronts, as the air is uniforml warm since the
ocean surface from which it was spawned is uniformly
warm. Hurricanes can drop tremendous amounts of
moisture on an area in a relatively short time. Rainfall
amounts of 350 to500 mm (14 to 20 in) in less than 24
hours are common in well-developed hurricanes,
where winds are often sustained in excess of 120 km/h
(75 mi/h).
The Philippines is prone to tropical cyclones due to its
geographical location which generally produce heavy
rains and flooding of large areas and also strong winds
which result in heavy casualties to human life and
destructions to crops and properties.
The Philippines is one of the most disaster-prone
countries in the world. Located along the Pacific ring
of fire, the Philippines is highly susceptible to seismic
and volcanic risks.
• Theories of raindrop formation
•​
• Not all condensation leads to precipitation. Condensation produces
water vapour clouds, but many times we may observe clouds in the
sky that produce no rain. Some people on high elevations may have
even noticed tiny rain drops that seem to evaporate before they hit
the ground, the meteorological term for which is known as virga. So
what then determines whether rainfall is produced of not? There are
two main theories put forward to explain raindrop formation. These
are known as Longmuir's Collision and Coalescence theory and the
Bergeron-Findeisen's Ice Crystal Mechanism theory.
Collision-Coalescence Theory
​

Moist rising air cools to form water vapour

clouds. When cooling reaches saturation
point droplets begin to form but are too
tiny and light to make it down the the
Earth's surface as rain so much of it may
dissipate while suspended within the cloud
or evaporate as it passes through the
atmosphere. However. within a cloud there
convection currents which facilitate the
continuous updrafts of moist air. Water
droplets (from updrafts and downdrafts)
collide to form larger droplets that now
have enough weight to fall to the ground as
rain. Even though they are still being ripped
apart on their way down by further
updrafts, they are just broken into smaller
raindrops.
This theory has widely been used to explain
the convectional rainfall of tropical regions.