Chapter 16 section 5 Precipitation Mylah Ferland 11/29/07 T-3

The five most common types of Precipitation Rain Sleet Freezing Rain Hail Snow

Vocabulary of precipitation Precipitation- is any form of water that falls from clouds and reaches Earth’s surface. Rain gauge- is an open-ended can or tube that collects rainfall. Droughts- can cause great hardship. Rain- is the most common kind of precipitation. It’s usually falls from the nimbostratus cloud. Sleet- is raindrops that fall through a layer of air below 0*c. Freezing rain- is raindrops that freeze when they touch a cold surface. Hail- is round pellets of large ice. It forms only inside cumulonimbus clouds during thunderstorms. A hailstone starts as an ice pellet inside a cold region of a cloud. Snow- is often water vapor in a cloud is converted directly into ice crystals called snowflakes.

How hailstones are formed? Hailstones form from an ice pellet inside a cold region of a cloud carry the hailstone up and down through the cold region and a new layer of ice forms around the hailstone.

Measuring Precipitation Meteorologists measure rainfall with a rain gauge (open-ended can or tube that collects rainfall). Rain gauge has a funnel, then there is a measuring device and there is also a overflow cylinder in it that is what is in a rain gauge.

Controlling Precipitation During droughts scientists commonly use a method called cloud seeding, in the seeds is tiny crystals of dry ice and silver iodide, they get the cloud seeds in the cloud by airplanes sprinkling the seeds into the clouds it forms rain or snow. This removes some of the fog so pilots can see the runways. Unfortunately, cloud seeding clears only cold fog, so it’s used for this purpose is limited. That is a way to control precipitation.

What kind of cloud produces hail? The cumulonimbus cloud produces hail.

The types of Precipitation clouds.