Precipitation

Water reaches to Earth

surface from the atmosphere
in any form.
Precipitation
Precipitation is the fall of water in various forms on the earth
from the clouds. The usual forms of the precipitation are rain
and snow, although it may also occur in the form of sleet,
glaze, hail, dew and frost.
Air in the atmosphere can easily absorb moisture in the form
of water vapour. The amount of water vapours absorbed by
air depends upon the temperature of air. The greater the
temperature of the air, the more water vapours it can absorb.
The amount of water vapour present in the air is indirectly
expressed in terms of vapour pressure. The water vapour
exerts a partial pressure on the water surface. This partial
pressure exerted by the water vapour is called vapour
pressure.
Conditions for Occurrence of Precipitation
Moisture is the form of vapour is always present in the
atmosphere, although it may not be visible on a cloudless day.
Precipitation may occur only when there is some mechanism
to cool the atmospheric air to bring it to saturation. Even
saturation of air does not necessarily lead to precipitation.
Precipitation occurs when the following four conditions are
satisfied.
l. Cooling of air masses
2. Formation of clouds due to condensation
3. Growth of water droplets
4. Accumulation of moisture
1. Cooling of air masses:
Cooling occurs when air ascends from the earth surface to
the upper levels in the atmosphere. The decrease in
temperature of the undisturbed atmospheric air with an
increase in altitude is called lapse rate. The precipitation
depends upon the rate and amount of cooling. Depending
upon the process causing lifting and cooling, the
precipitation is classified as orographic, convective etc.
2. Formation of clouds due to condensation :
Condensation occurs when the water vapour in the
atmosphere is converted into liquid droplets or into ice
crystals when the temperature is quite low. Clouds are formed
due to condensation.
The clouds are nothing but liquid water droplets (or the ice
crystals) floating in air.
It is worth noting that saturation of water vapours does not
necessarily result in condensation and formation of clouds.
Small solid particles, called condensation nuclei or the
hygroscopic nuclei, are essential for the conversion of water
vapours into water droplets.
Fortunately condensation nuclei, which are of the size
0.001 micron to 10 micron (1 micron = 10-6 m), are
usually present in the atmosphere due to combustion
of solids and due to salt particles from the sea.
However, the number of nuclei per cm3 varies between
a few to several millions in different regions of the
atmosphere.
The rate of condensation increases as the number of
nuclei increases. In general, there are usually sufficient
condensation nuclei in the air to cause condensation as
soon as the saturation occurs.
3. Growth of water droplets:
The size of water droplets in a cloud is usually very small. It is about
0-0.2 mm in diameter. The weight of these droplets is so small that
even an upward air current of 2.5 mm/s will not allow them to fall
on the ground.
It is therefore necessary that the size of these droplets must
increase before the precipitation can occur.
Coalescence of droplets occurs to form larger rain drops which are
large enough to overcome air resistance when falling. The
coalescence takes place due to difference of velocity of the larger
droplets and small droplets, and due to coexistence of ice crystals
and water droplets in clouds.
The boundary line between the water droplets and the rain drop is
usually taken as 0.2 mm. However, the diameter of most of rain
drops reaching the ground is much greater than 0.2 mm.
4. Accumulation of moisture :
The air must contain sufficient amount of moisture so that
appreciable precipitation can occur after meeting the
evaporation losses between the clouds and the ground.
Accumulation of moisture in atmosphere occurs due to
evaporation from land, vegetation and water surfaces.
 Precipitation
Forms of
Precipitation Rainfall is common form
 Liquid Precipitation of precipitation..
1. Rain Fall
2. Drizzle

 Frozen Precipitation
1. Snow
2. Snow flakes
3. Hail
4. Sleet
Forms of Precipitation
Drizzle: a light steady rain in fine drops (0.5 mm) and intensity
<1 mm/hr.
Rain: the condensed water vapour of the atmosphere falling in
drops from the clouds (>0.5 mm, maximum size—6 mm).

rain sleet

Glaze: freezing of drizzle or rain when they come in contact

with cold objects.
Sleet: frozen rain drops while falling through air at
subfreezing temperature.
Snow: ice crystals resulting from sublimation
(i.e., water vapour condenses to ice).
Snow flakes: ice crystals fused together.

Snow Flakes Hail

Hail: small lumps of ice (>5 mm in diameter) formed by alternate
freezing and melting, when they are carried up and down in highly
turbulent air currents.
Dew: moisture condensed from the atmosphere in small drops upon
cool surfaces.
Frost: a feathery deposit of ice formed on the ground or on the
surface of exposed objects by dew or water vapour that has frozen.
Fog: a thin cloud of varying size formed at the surface of the earth
by condensation of atmospheric vapour (interfering with visibility).
Mist: a very thin fog.
 Types of Precipitation
1. Cyclonic Precipitation:
When air masses rise up with vapors and travel
towards low pressure areas resulting into Cyclonic
precipitation.
i. Frontal precipitation
It is due to flow of warm air mass into a cold region.

ii. Non-Frontal precipitation

When cold air meets with stationary warm air then
Non-Frontal Precipitation occurs.
2. Convective Precipitation:
It occurs due to natural rising of warm
lighter air with vapors into the colder
and denser region.
3. Orographic Precipitation
When heavily moisture-laden air stops due to
topographic conditions (mountains) and
precipitation occurs then it is called
orographic precipitation. Just like in Himalayan
regions.
4. Precipitation due to Turbulent Ascent.
When turbulence in the velocity of
clouds occur due to land surface after
long travel on the ocean surface then
there will be risen up of clouds into
colder regions and precipitation occurs.
Types of Precipitation
The precipitation may be due to
(i) Thermal convection (convectional precipitation)
(ii) Conflict between two air masses (frontal precipitation)
(iii) Orographic lifting (orographic precipitation)
(iv) Cyclonic (cyclonic precipitation)
(i) Thermal convection (convectional precipitation)
This type of precipitation is in the form of local
whirling thunder storms and is typical of the tropics.
The air close to the warm earth gets heated and rises
due to its low density, cools adiabatically to form a
cauliflower shaped cloud, which finally bursts into a
thunder storm.
When accompanied by destructive winds, they are
called ‘tornados’.
(ii) Conflict between two air masses
(frontal precipitation)
When two air masses due to contrasting temperatures
and densities clash with each other, condensation and
precipitation occur at the surface of contact (see Fig.)
This surface of contact is called a ‘front’ or ‘frontal
surface’.
If a cold air mass drives out a warm air mass it is called
a ‘cold front’ and if a warm air mass replaces the
retreating cold air mass, it is called a ‘warm front’.
On the other hand, if the two air masses are drawn
simultaneously towards a low pressure area, the
front developed is stationary and is called a
‘stationary front’.

Cold front causes intense precipitation on comparatively

small areas, while the precipitation due to warm front is
less intense but is spread over a comparatively larger
area.
Cold fronts move faster than warm fronts and
usually overtake them, the frontal surfaces of
cold and warm air sliding against each other.
This phenomenon is called ‘occlusion’ and the
resulting frontal surface is called an ‘occluded
front’.
(iii) Orographic lifting (orographic precipitation)
The mechanical lifting of moist air over mountain
barriers, causes heavy precipitation on the windward
side (see Fig.).
For example Cherrapunji in the Himalayan range and
Agumbe in the western Ghats of south India get very
heavy orographic precipitation of 1250 cm and 900 cm
(average annual rainfall), respectively.
(iv) Cyclonic (cyclonic precipitation)
This type of precipitation is due to lifting of moist air
converging into a low pressure belt, i.e., due to pressure
differences created by the unequal heating of the
earth’s surface.
Here the winds blow spirally inward counterclockwise in
the northern hemisphere and clockwise in the southern
hemisphere.
There are two main types of cyclones:
Tropical cyclone (also called hurricane or typhoon) of
comparatively small diameter of 300-1500 km causing
high wind velocity and heavy precipitation; and
Extra-tropical cyclone of large diameter up to 3000 km
causing wide spread frontal type precipitation.
Rainfall
Characteristics
1. Size and Shape
 Rainfall occurs when moisture
in the atmosphere condenses
into drops.
 Raindrops occur in any shape
up to approximately 9 mm
mean diameter after which
they tend to break up.
2. Intensity and Duration
 Amount of water that reaches to
ground surface per unit area is
called intensity.
 Intensity and duration are usually
inversely related, i.e., high
intensity storms are likely to be of
short duration and low intensity
storms can have a long duration.
Any questions?