1. Water & Precipitation Notes

2. Water Cycle
The total amount of water on our planet is always the same, it is not created or destroyed
Water Cycle: Water simply moves through the atmosphere, the oceans, the land, and living things in a constant cycle

3. Water Cycle
Evaporation: water changing form from liquid to vapor (gas)
Condensation: opposite of evaporation, water changing form from vapor to liquid
Precipitation: water that falls from clouds to the Earth’s surface (rain, snow, sleet, hail, etc)

4. Turn to page 55 in your textbook, and draw a diagram of the Water Cycle in your notebook

5. Humidity Humidity: a measure of how much water vapor is in the air
Psychrometer: an instrument that measures humidity
Important! Cool air holds less water than warm air
Relative Humidity: the percentage of water in the air compared to the maximum amount of water the air can hold

6. Condensation Dew point: the temperature at which condensation begins
If the dew point is above freezing, liquid droplets form
If the dew point is below freezing, ice crystals form
Dew: liquid water condensed on Earth’s surface
Frost: ice crystals condensed on Earth’s surface

7. Clouds
Clouds form when water vapor in the atmosphere condense to form liquid droplets or ice crystals of water
As air cools, the amount of water it can hold decreases, water forced out of the air forms clouds!
Cloud droplets and ice crystals form around tiny particles of salt, dust, and smoke in the air

8. Clouds Many different types of clouds depending on altitude and shape
Cirrus: wispy clouds
Cumulus: fluffy clouds
Stratus: flat layers
Altitude
Alto- : high altitude
Fog: clouds at ground level

10. Precipitation
When cloud droplets or ice crystals get heavy enough, they fall to the Earth as precipitation
Rain: liquid precipitation
Sleet: small particles of ice
Freezing Rain: liquid rain that freezes when it lands on something cold
Snow: ice crystals
Hail: large pellets of ice, can get larger than baseballs!