1. Water

2. water cycle

5. Evaporation
Heat energy from the sun causes water in puddles, streams, rivers, seas or lakes to change from a liquid to a water vapor.
This is called evaporation.
The vapor rises into the air and collects in clouds.  

6. Condensation
Water vapor collects in clouds. As the clouds cool the water vapor condenses into water drops.
This is called condensation.
These drops fall to the earth as rain, snow or hail.

7. Precipitation
Water falls to the earth from clouds. Mainly as rain, but sometimes as snow and hail.
This is called precipitation.

8. Transpiration
Transpiration is the process by which plants lose water out of their leaves. 
Transpiration gives evaporation a bit of a hand in getting the water vapor back up into the air.

9. Condensation Transpiration Precipitation Evaporation The Clouds form
The movement through plants
Precipitation
The rain falls
Evaporation
The vapor rises

10. The Water Cycle Movie
Watch the movie
Take a Quiz

11. Connecting Weather to the Environment
WATERSHEDS
Connecting Weather to the Environment
This presentation was developed to accompany the Watersheds: Connecting Weather to the Environment course developed by the National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF) and the Cooperative Program for Operational Meteorology, Education, and Training (COMET). It may be used for community outreach activities, and is customizable to your location.
Produced by the COMET® Program in partnership with
the National Environmental Education Foundation

12. What is a watershed?
A watershed is an area of land from which all runoff drains, or 'sheds' to the same river, lake, or other body of water.
Runoff-Water travels downhill and enters into rivers and lakes.
When it rains or snows, where does the water go? Into a “watershed.” Some of the water that falls is stored in the land, some of it evaporates away, and the rest follows the slope of the land to a common river, lake, or other body of water.

13. Everyone lives in a watershed
You don’t need to visit the Grand Canyon to see a watershed.
You’re already in one!
Your own backyard is part of a watershed.
Everyone lives in a watershed – Your own backyard is part of a watershed. Down the street, there may be a small creek or drainage ditch, which will eventually lead to a larger stream, river, pond, or lake. This means that what happens in your backyard, and your neighbor’s backyard, affects your whole environmental neighborhood!

14. The System of Watersheds
Watersheds are like pieces of a puzzle:
Each is part of a larger picture or mosaic.
“Watershed” is a relative term – a watershed can drain an area as small as a few city blocks, or as large as an entire geographical region, such as the Ohio River Basin. Smaller watersheds come together to form larger watersheds, much like puzzle pieces fit together to create a larger picture.

15. A Nested System
Larger watersheds contain smaller watersheds, which contain even smaller ones.
Another way of looking at watersheds is that they are a nested system – larger watersheds encompass many smaller watersheds. For example, the “Lena Gulch” watershed in Colorado’s Rocky Mountain Foothills drains only 14 square miles of land, but the water from Lena Gulch eventually combines with water from numerous other small watersheds in the central U.S. to form the very large Missouri River Basin.

16. Watershed Addresses
Just as our homes have street addresses, our neighborhood watersheds have environmental addresses.
(Click the map to open a web browser to the USGS Locate your Watershed website, where you can drill down to specific watersheds in your broadcast area.)
(Note that an Internet connection is required.)

17. Where does our water come from?
All of our freshwater starts as precipitation, which moves continually through the hydrologic cycle.
Condensation
Precipitation
Snowmelt
Springs
Streams and rivers
Infiltration into the ground
Lakes
(Click this picture to link out to a local web page containing an animated version of the hydrologic cycle.)
All of our freshwater starts out as rain or snow, which moves through the “hydrologic cycle.” When rain or snow falls, some of it soaks into the ground, replenishing groundwater supplies in natural, underground storage areas called “aquifers.” Some of the water also runs over the land into streams, rivers, and lakes. Both groundwater and surface waters eventually drain to the ocean. When water evaporates and condenses, the cycle begins again with rain or snowfall.
Evaporation
Aquifers
Ocean Storage
Groundwater flow to oceans

18. The Surface-Groundwater System
Ground Water- flows underground as springs or underground rivers. Water underground is stored in an aquifer.
Surface and underground water bodies form an inter-connected system. Surface water recharges groundwater storage.
Groundwater also flows up into surface water bodies.
A closer look at surface waters (streams, rivers, and lakes) and groundwater reveals an interconnected system. Streams, rivers, and lakes help to replenish groundwater supplies in aquifers, while groundwater flows up into surface water bodies. During dry times, surface waters can be derived almost completely from groundwater supplies.

19. Aquifers
Aquifer: a body of saturated rock or sediment through which water can move easily

20. Ground Water
Brain Pop Video
Ground Water Quiz

21. What is a Water Table?
Water Table-The water table is the underground depth at which point the ground is totally saturated with water.
Much of the Earth's water is actually locked up underground, and while it may not be as physically obvious as big lakes and rivers, it is critically important.
When underground water deposits are large enough to be considered sustainable for use, they are known as aquifers. The water table could also be thought of as the top of the aquifer.

22. Water Table

23. Drinking Water Sources
Most water systems (80%) in the U.S. use a ground water source for drinking water, but the majority of the population (66%) are served by surface water sources.
(Click the map to open a web browser to the EPA Local Drinking Water Information website, where you can look up water source information for your broadcast area. To do so, click your state on the US Map, then click the ENVIROFACTS DATA link for your state. (Note that an Internet connection is required.))
As an example, 98% of Atlanta’s water comes from surface water, the Chattahoochee River, which is the smallest in the US serving a major metropolitan area.

24. Weather & Watersheds: Pollution
What is the most common cause of pollution in streams, rivers, and oceans?
Dumping of garbage by cities
Surface water running off yards, streets, paved lots, and farm fields
Trash washed into the ocean from beaches
Waste dumped by factories
Have your audience guess the correct answer (#2). (Go to next slide for more information.)

25. Sources of Pollution
Precipitation runoff from farms, lawns, and paved surfaces is the leading source of water pollution in America today.
Many people still believe that industry creates most of the water pollution in our streams, rivers, and oceans. Actually, “non-point source” or runoff pollution is the most common cause of pollution – that’s water running off yards, streets, paved lots, and farm fields, which picks up pollutants along the way.

26. What’s in the water? Main pollutants: Fertilizers Herbicides
Insecticides
Oil, grease, and toxic chemicals from urban areas
Sediment
Road Salt
Bacteria and Nitrogen
Air pollutants
(Click the picture to open a web browser to the EPA Window to My Environment website, where you can find out about
impairments to waterbodies in your broadcast area. In the new window, enter your city and state, then click Create My Window.
When the map window opens, click the Your Environment tab and follow the Are There Polluted Waters link. (Note that an Internet connection is required.))
Some of the most common water pollutants are yard care chemicals, such as fertilizers, herbicides, and insecticides; oil, grease, and other toxics from urban areas; soil; road salts used during the winter season; bacteria and nutrients found in animal waste; and air pollutants that are deposited in water bodies.
As an example, key effects on water quality in Atlanta are pathogens, sediments, and habitat altteration.

27. Protecting Watersheds: What You Can Do Everyday
Simple Ways to Protect Your Watershed
Don’t Dump or Litter
Water and Landscape Wisely
Control the Flow
Pick up After Rover
Fix that Leak
Participate in a Cleanup
Regardless of where you live, there are simple actions you can take everyday to help protect your watershed and water quality in local streams, rivers, lakes, and groundwater supplies.
Don’t dump! Make sure that only rainwater and snowmelt goes into storm drains and ditches, which lead directly to local surface waters. Never put trash or household chemicals in or near a storm drain or ditch.
Be yard smart. Choose plants that are well-adapted to your climate and water wisely. Turn those sprinklers off when there is rain in the forecast, and hold-off on outdoor fertilizer and pesticide applications until dry weather is in the forecast.
Control the Flow. Save water by installing low-flow toilets and showerheads. These fixtures use significantly less water without sacrificing comfort!
Pick it up. Every time you and Rover hit the road, make sure to take a plastic bag with you to pick-up waste and throw it away in a trash can. Don’t forget to pick-up in your yard, too.
Fix those leaks. Check your home for leaky faucets and fixtures, which can result in a major waste of water!
Get involved – join a local watershed group in a cleanup or restoration activity.

28. Terracing
Terracing-Terracing is a soil conservation practice applied to prevent rainfall runoff on sloping land from accumulating and causing serious erosion. It also helps collect run-off.

29. What is a Basin?
Basin is an extent or an area of land where surface water from rain and melting snow or ice gathers to a single point, usually the exit of the basin, where the waters join another water body, such as a river, lake, or ocean.

30. What is a Spring?
A spring is a point where water flows out of the ground. A spring may flow the whole year or only sometimes. This depends on the water getting into the ground all of the time (rain) or only once in a while (snow melting).

31. What is a Cone of Depression?
A cone of depression occurs in an aquifer when groundwater is pumped from a well.
A cone results from changing groundwater flow direction. As the well pulls water up from underground, soils falls inward, which creates a cone shape.