Rain, snow or hail - we have been familiar with all these concepts since childhood. We have a special relationship with each of them. So, rain brings sadness and dull thoughts, snow, on the contrary, cheers and cheers up. But hail, for example, few people love, as it is capable of causing enormous damage to agriculture and serious injuries to those who appear on the street at this time.
We have long learned how to determine the approximation of certain precipitations by external signs. So, if in the morning the street is very gray and cloudy, precipitation in the form of a prolonged rain is possible. Usually this rain is not very strong, but it can last all day. If thick and heavy clouds appear on the horizon, precipitation in the form of snow is possible. Light clouds in the form of feathers portend a heavy rainfall.
It should be noted that all types of precipitation are the result of very complex and very lengthy processes in the earth's atmosphere. So that normal rain forms, the interaction of three components is necessary: the sun, the Earth’s surface and the atmosphere.
Precipitation is ...
Atmospheric precipitation is water in liquid or solid state, which falls out of the atmosphere. Precipitation can either fall directly onto the surface of the Earth or settle on it or on any other objects.
The amount of rainfall in a particular area can be measured. Measure them by the thickness of the water layer in millimeters. At the same time, solid types of precipitation are pre-melted. The average annual rainfall on the planet is 1000 mm. In tropical deserts, no more than 200-300 mm falls, and the driest place on the planet is the Atacama Desert, where the recorded annual rainfall is about 3 mm.
Education process
How are they formed, various types of precipitation? The scheme of their formation is one, and it is based on the continuous circulation of water in nature. Consider this process in more detail.
It all starts with the fact that the sun begins to warm the earth's surface. Under the influence of heating, the water masses that are contained in the oceans, seas, rivers, are converted into water vapor, mixing with air. The processes of vaporization occur throughout the day, constantly, to a greater or lesser extent. The volume of vaporization depends on the latitude of the area, as well as on the intensity of solar radiation.
Further, the moist air heats up and begins, according to the unshakable laws of physics, to rise upward. Having risen to a certain height, it cools, and the moisture in it gradually turns into drops of water or ice crystals. This process is called condensation, and it is from such water particles that the clouds we admire in the sky are made up.
Drops in the clouds grow and grow larger, taking in more and more moisture. As a result, they become so heavy that they can no longer be held in the atmosphere, and fall down. So precipitation is born, the types of which depend on specific weather conditions in a particular area.
The water that has fallen to the surface of the Earth flows down streams into rivers and seas over time. Then the natural cycle in the geographical envelope repeats itself again and again.
Precipitation: types of precipitation
As already mentioned here, there are a huge number of varieties of precipitation. Meteorologists distinguish several dozen.
All types of precipitation can be divided into three main groups:
- drizzling;
- overhead;
- rain showers.
Precipitation can also be liquid (rain, drizzle, fog) or solid (snow, hail, hoarfrost).
Rain
This is a type of liquid precipitation in the form of water droplets falling on the ground under the influence of gravity. The sizes of the drops can be different: from 0.5 to 5 millimeters in diameter. Drops of rain falling on the water surface leave diverging circles of perfectly round shape on the water.
Depending on the intensity, rain can be drizzling, overcast or heavy rain. It also produces rainfall with snow.
Icy rains are a special type of precipitation that occurs at subzero air temperatures. Do not confuse them with hail. Ice rain is a drop in the form of small frozen balls, inside of which there is water. Falling to the ground, such balls break, and water flows out of them, leading to the formation of dangerous ice.
If the rain intensity is too high (about 100 mm per hour), then it is called rainfall. Showers are formed on cold atmospheric fronts, within unstable air masses. As a rule, they are observed in very small areas.
Snow
These solid precipitation falls at sub-zero air temperatures and have the form of snow crystals, colloquially referred to as snowflakes.
During snow, visibility is significantly reduced, with heavy snowfall it can be less than 1 kilometer. During severe frosts, light snow can be observed even with a cloudless sky. Separately, such a variety of snow as wet snow stands out - these are precipitation falling at low plus temperatures.
Hail
This kind of solid precipitation is formed at high altitudes (at least 5 kilometers), where the air temperature is always lower - 15 o .
How does hail turn out? It is formed from droplets of water, which then fall, then rise sharply in vortices of cold air. Thus, large ice balls are formed. Their size depends on how long these processes took place in the atmosphere. There were times when gradients weighing up to 1-2 kilograms fell to the ground!
Gradina in its internal structure is very similar to an onion: it consists of several layers of ice. You can even count them, similar to how the rings on sawn trees count, and determine how many times the drops made swift vertical travels in the atmosphere.
It is worth noting that hail is a real disaster for agriculture, because it can easily destroy all the plants on the plantation. In addition, it is almost impossible to determine the approach of the hail in advance. It starts instantly and happens, as a rule, in the summer season.
Now you know how precipitation forms. Types of precipitation can be very different, which makes our nature beautiful and unique. All the processes taking place in it are simple and at the same time ingenious.