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Precipitation
By: Brittany Erickson and Kacie Vierhuf
Definition
When the clouds become too big and heavy with water droplets, the water starts
falling to earth as either rain, fog, mist, dew, snow or hail depending on how cold
it got high up in the atmosphere.
Different Types of
Precipitation
 Dew
 Mist
 Fog
 Rain
 Hail
 Snow
 Dew is water in the form of
Dew
droplets that appears on thin,
exposed objects in the
morning or evening
 When surface temperature
drops, eventually reaching the
dew point, atmospheric water
vapor condenses to form small
droplets on the surface
 Because dew is related to the
temperature of surfaces, in
late summer it is formed most
easily on surfaces which are
not warmed by conducted
heat from deep ground, such
as grass, leaves, railings, car
roofs, and bridges
Mist
• Mist is a phenomenon of
small droplets suspended in
air
 Common in cold air above
warmer water, in exhaled air
in the cold
 The difference between mist
and fog is visibility
 If we can see between 1
and 2km, we call it mist
 Mist is a milder form of fog
 Fog is a collection of water
Fog
droplets or ice crystals suspended
in the air at or near the Earth's
surface
 While fog is a type of a cloud, the
term "fog" is typically
distinguished from the more
generic term "cloud" in that fog is
low-lying, and the moisture in the
fog is often generated near bodies
of water
 Fog begins to form when water
vapor condenses into tiny liquid
water droplets in the air
 Fog forms when the difference
between the temperature and dew
point is generally less than 4
degrees F
 Symbol =
Rain
Liquid precipitation
Rain requires the presence of a
thick layer of the atmosphere to
have temperatures above the
melting point of water near and
above the Earth's surface.
Rain drops range in size from
oblate, pancake-like shapes for
larger drops, to small spheres for
smaller drops.
 Measured by a rain gauge
in tenths
 Rain gauge is a device
that measures the amount
of rain that falls
 Hail forms when droplets
Hail
Hail is a form of solid precipitation
which consists of balls or irregular
lumps of ice, that are individually
called hail stones
Measured by comparing it to
familiar sized objects such as a
quarter, golf ball, baseball, etc. Or
measured by a ruler.
Symbol=
of water freeze around a
small core of ice. Hail
stones increase in size by
adding extra layers of ice
as they are tossed up and
down by rising and falling
air in thunderstorms.
Intensity of hail
Measured from H0 to H10
depending on the intensity and size
of hail
 Snow forms when water
Snow
vapor in the air changes
directly to ice. Snowflakes
are usually 6-sided ice
crystals. The air
temperature must be less
than 0°C for snow to form
 Measured by a measuring
stick.
 Put a snowboard on the
old snow to measure new
snow, clean it off each
time it is done snowing.
 Symbol =
Activity
Instructions
 Step 1: cut off the top 1/3 of a clear plastic pop bottle. Take
the top off the bottle and invert the top third into the lower
2/3 of the bottle (it now acts as a funnel for collecting the
rain water).
 Step 2: Put some pebbles into the bottom of the bottle then
secure the two parts of the bottle together using tape
 Step 3: Either stick the clear plastic ruler to the side of the
bottle with tape just above the level of the pebbles or you
can draw a scale onto some masking tape using the ruler
then stick the masking tape straight onto the bottle.
 Step 4: Fill the bottle with water up to the ‘0’ at the
bottom of your measuring scale or ruler. This becomes
the bottom of the rain gauge.
 Step 5: Put the gauge in an open area where it is
exposed to rain but where it won’t be easily knocked
over
 Step 6: Monitor rainfall each day by reading how many
millimeters the water level has risen
 Step 7: Before a big downpour, make predictions on
how many millimeters of rain is going to fall
Bibliography
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fog
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mist
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dew
http://shoalwater.nsw.gov.au/education/precipitation_experi
ment.htm
http://shoalwater.nsw.gov.au/education/precipitation.htm