Precipitation
Precipitation is the falling of water from the atmosphere. It is a term in meteorology, and includes rain, snow, sleet, ice pellets, dew, frost, and hail. These form by condensation from atmospheric water vapor, and fall under gravity.
Fog and mist are not precipitation but suspensions. In that case, the water vapor does not condense sufficiently to precipitate.
If liquid, precipitation can be measured using a rain gauge. The most common form of solid precipitation is snow. Snow is made when temperatures are so cold that water vapor changes directly to solid crystals. Frozen rain is hail or ice pellets.
Precipitation Media
- Daily mean precipitation.gif
Mean precipitation based on global high resolution climate data (CHELSA)
Countries by average annual precipitation. Some parts of a country can be much wetter than others, so it is not an accurate depiction of the wettest and driest places on earth.
A thunderstorm with heavy precipitation
Late-summer rainstorm in Denmark
Condensation and coalescence are important parts of the water cycle.
Raindrops falling on waterHere comes rain again
An accumulation of ice pellets
A large hailstone, about 6 centimetres (2.4 in) in diameter
Snowflake viewed in an optical microscope
