What causes the water droplets to fall as rain?
Heat from the Sun turns moisture (water) from plants and leaves, as well as oceans, lakes, and rivers, into water vapour (gas), which disappears into the air. This vapour rises, cools, and changes into tiny water droplets, which form clouds. When the water droplets get too large and heavy, they fall as rain.
What is the process of rain called?
Precipitation is any liquid or frozen water that forms in the atmosphere and falls back to the Earth. It comes in many forms, like rain, sleet, and snow. Precipitation forms in the clouds when water vapor condenses into bigger and bigger droplets of water. When the drops are heavy enough, they fall to the Earth.
How does water move in the water cycle?
In the basic water cycle, water falls on the land in some type of precipitation (rain or snow). It either is soaked into the ground or runs off into a body of water – stormwater or natural. Eventually, it returns to the atmosphere. After a large rain event, even a good soil mixture can get saturated.
How does precipitation occur in the water cycle?
Precipitation occurs as [&water&] droplets get bigger and heavier they begin to fall as rain, snow and sleet, etc. When the precipitation reaches the surface, some falls directly into the [&sea&] but other [&water&] falls on land: Some [&water&] is intercepted by vegetation.
Where does the water go when it returns to the Earth?
The returning water falls directly back into the oceans, or onto land as snow or rain. It soaks into the soil to move into the groundwater or runs off the Earth’s surface in streams, rivers and lakes, which drain back into the oceans. The water may be taken up by plants and returned to the atmosphere
Where does the snow go in the water cycle?
The snow will fall to the ground, and eventually melts back into a liquid and runs off into a lake or river, which flows back into the ocean, where it starts the process again. That’s just one path water can take through the water cycle.