PRECIPITATION

Precipitation is any form of water that falls to the earth's surface. This includes snow, rain, sleet, freezing rain, and hail. Precipitation is generated in clouds. When water vapor droplets in clouds become so large that updrafts within the clouds can no longer support them, the water will fall to the earth under the force of gravity.

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IMPORTANCE
Precipitation is needed to replenish water to the earth. Without precipitation, this planet would be an enormous desert. The amount and duration of precipitation events affect both water level and water quality within an estuary. Precipitation supplies freshwater to estuaries, which is an important source of dissolved oxygen and nutrients. Droughts lower the freshwater input to estuaries and the water levels of inland lakes. Lake levels influence water drainage and circulation patterns in freshwater estuaries.

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Phases
Precipitation falls in various forms, or phases. They can be subdivided into: Liquid precipitation: Drizzle (DZ) Rain (RA) Freezing precipitation: Freezing drizzle (FZDZ) Freezing rain (FZRA) Frozen precipitation: Snow (SN) Snow grains (SG) Ice pellets (PL) Click to edit Master subtitle style Hail (GR) Snow pellets/Graupel (GS) Ice crystals (IC).

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DRIZZLE
Drizzle is a light rain precipitation consisting of liquid water drops smaller than those of rain, and generally smaller than 0.5mm (0.02 in.) in diameter. Drizzle is normally produced by low stratiform clouds and stratocumulus clouds. Precipitation rates due to drizzle are on the order of a millimetre per day or less at the ground. Owing to the small size of drizzle drops, under many circumstances drizzle largely evaporates before reaching the surface, and so may be undetected by observers on the ground. The METAR code for drizzle is DZ.

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DRIZZLE
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Rain is liquid precipitation, as opposed to non-liquid kinds of precipitation such as snow, hail and sleet. 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. On Earth, it is the condensation of atmospheric water vapor into drops of water heavy enough to fall, often making it to the surface. Two processes, possibly acting together, can lead to air becoming saturated leading to rainfall: cooling the air or adding water vapor to the air.

RAIN

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RAIN
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FREEZING DRIZZLE
Freezing drizzle is drizzle that freezes on contact with the ground or an object at or near the surface. Its METAR code is FZDZ. When freezing drizzle accumulates on land it creates an icy layer of glaze. Freezing drizzle alone does not generally result in significant ice accumulations due to its light, low-intensity nature. Formation Drizzle is formed in low level stratus type clouds when vertical motion is weak. It consists of relatively small drops, light in nature. Freezing drizzle generally occurs when drizzle forms in an airmass at below freezing temperatures but warmer than -10C (12F). At such a temperature, the water droplets stay supercool as there are few ice nuclei to change them to ice crystals (see freezing rain). In winter Click to edit Master subtitle style arctic conditions it can happen at even lower surface temperatures as the air is even cleaner.

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FREEZING RAIN
Freezing rain is the name given to rain that falls when surface temperatures are below freezing. The raindrops become supercooled while passing through a sub-freezing layer of air, many hundred feet (or meters), just above the surface, and then freeze upon impact with any object they encounter.[1] The resulting ice, called glaze, can accumulate to a thickness of several centimeters. The METAR code for freez.A storm that produces a significant thickness of glaze ice from freezing rain is often referred to as an "ice storm". Freezing rain is notorious for causing travel problems on roadways, breaking tree limbs, and downing power lines. It is also known for being extremely dangerous to aircraft since the ice can effectively 'remould' the shape of the airfoil and flight control surfacesing rain is FZRA. Click to edit Master subtitle style

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SNOW
Snow is a form of precipitation within the Earth's atmosphere in the form of crystalline water ice, consisting of a multitude of snowflakes that fall from clouds. Since snow is composed of small ice particles, it is a granular material. It has an open and therefore soft structure, unless packed by external pressure. Snowflakes come in a variety of sizes and shapes. Types which fall in the form of a ball due to melting and refreezing, rather than a flake, are known as graupel, with ice pellets and snow grains as examples of graupel. Snowfall amount and its related liquid equivalent precipitation amount are determined using a variety of different rain gauges. The process of precipitating snow is called snowfall. Snowfall tends to form within regions of upward motion of air around a type of Click to edit Master subtitle style low-pressure system known as an extratropical cyclone

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SNOW GRAINS
Also called granular snow.Precipitation in the form of very small, white opaque particles of ice; the solid equivalent of drizzle. They resemble snow pellets in external appearance, but are more flattened and elongated, and generally have diameters of less than 1 mm; they neither shatter nor bounce when they hit a hard surface. Descriptions of the physical structure of snow grains vary widely and include very fine, simple ice crystals; tiny, complex snow crystals; small, compact bundles of rime; and particles with a rime core and a fine glaze coating. It is agreed that snow grains usually fall in very small quantities, mostly from stratus clouds or from fog, and never in the form of a shower Click to edit Master subtitle style

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