Download Weather-clouds and precipitation

Weather: What are clouds?
What are clouds and how do they form?
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When water vapor in the air condenses, it changes to a liquid.
When those drops of liquid combine a cloud forms
The cloud formation process starts when warm air rises.
Warm air near Earth’s Surface holds water vapor.
As warm air rises, it moves to a cooler part of the atmosphere.
Cool air cannot hold as much vapor as warm air.
Some of the water vapor condenses around tiny pieces of dust in the air.
Without this dust we would have no clouds.
This dust is also known as condensation nuclei.
Clouds can either form as drops of water or as ice crystals. Wither way it takes billions of these drops of
water to form clouds.
Clouds look different depending on what they are made of.
Water droplet clouds tend to have sharp, well-defined edges.
If the cloud is thick, it may look gray or even black. That is because sunlight is unable to pass through.
Ice crystal clouds tend to have fuzzy, less distinct edges. They also look whiter.
Weather: Clouds and Precipitation
There are 4 different types of precipitation - rain, sleet, snow, hail
Rain
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Rain falls in large heavy drops
Cloud droplets are too tiny to fall to Earth.
Other rain drops come from ice crystals that form in cold clouds. They melt as they fall closer to Earth.
Snow
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Snow falls from cold clouds when ice crystals stay frozen as they fall.
The falling ice crystals join together to form snowflakes of different sizes.
Sleet
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Sleet is frozen or partly frozen rain.
Sleet forms when raindrops fall through a layer of very cold air near the ground.
Hail
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Hail is precipitation in the form of ice balls or chunks of ice.
Cumulonimbus clouds often produce hail