Table of Contents

Precipitation

6.1

Essential Question How do Meteorologist Predict Weather?

What are the Common Types of Precipitation?

Weather Patterns

Cloud TypesThere are many different types of clouds.

Clouds

Vocabulary 6.2

1. Precipitation- Any form of water that falls from clouds and reaches Earth’s surface as rain, snow, sleet, or hail.

2. Rain Gauge- An instrument used to measure precipitation

What Are the Common Types of Precipitation?Any form of water that falls from clouds and reaches Earth’s surface is

precipitation.

Common types of precipitation include:

rain, sleet, freezing rain, snow, and hail.

RainPrevailing winds move air masses (water vapor)

Rain is the most common. (They come in different sizes!!!)

• Drops of water are called rain if they are at least 0.5 millimeters in diameter. (L)

• Smaller drops of water are called drizzle (M)

• Even smaller ones are called mist. (S)

Water DropletsCloud droplets condense to become larger droplets.

Precipitation

Instrument to Measure Rain Funnel

(10x more than a tube alone)

Measuring Rain

An open-ended can or tube that collects rainfall is called a rain gauge.

measure by:

• Dipping ruler into the water

• or by reading a scale

• To get the actual depth, you divide by ten.

#cm/10

Rain GaugeThe rain gauge, measuring in centimeters, collects ten times the actual depth of rain that falls.

Precipitation

Freezing PrecipitationThere are four types of freezing precipitation:

• sleet

Snow

freezing rain

HailFreezing rain is rain that freezes when it hits a cold surface.

When clouds are colder, water vapor can convert directly into ice crystals, forming snow.

Forms of PrecipitationSleet• When raindrops fall through a layer of air colder than 0°C• they can freeze into ice particles.• Ice particles smaller than 5 millimeters in diameter

Hailstones• Round pellets of ice larger than 5 mm in diameter

Hail• forms only inside cumulonimbus clouds during thunderstorms.• It forms when strong updrafts repeatedly carry ice pellets through cold

regions of a cloud, adding another layer of ice each time.

http://www.pearsonsuccessnet.com/snpapp/learn/navigateIDP.do?method=vlo&internalId=140611110000004#

Freezing PrecipitationWhat would be the air and ground temperature ranges for each type of precipitation?

Precipitation

Resources

Song

http://www.kidsknowit.com/educational-songs/play-educational-song.php?song=Snowflake,%20Snowflake

Types of Precipitation

http://www.kidsgeo.com/geography-for-kids/0114-precipitation-types.php

Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snsVdIVG4CI