Tag: hydrologic cycle and its components

70.8% part of the earth's surface is full of water. The distribution of this water is very uneven. At some places, the water storage is limited while it is ample at other place.

When water falls in the solid or liquid state from the clouds to ground, it is known as precipitation. Snow, hailstones, rainfall are the major forms of precipitation.

When the temperature in the atmosphere falls below the freezing point, water vapour directly turns into snowflakes. This process is known as sublimation.

When water falls in the solid or liquid state from the clouds to ground it is called precipitation. Snow, hailstones, rainfall are the major forms of precipitation.

The process by which water vapour in the atmosphere changed into liquid water is called condensation. As the atmospheric conditions change, we see change in the forms of condensation.

When the saturated air his obstructed by land form barrier such as mountains, it is forced to ascend and as it rises, it expands and temperature falls. As a result, condensation takes place and rainfall occurs. This type of rainfall is called as relief rain or orographic rainfall. 

In orographic rainfall, the windward slope of the mountain receives maximum rain and the leeward slope remains generally drier and is known as the rain shadow area.

When the condensation or solidification of the water vapor in the atmosphere occurs near the earth's surface, then  we can see fog, dew, frost etc. 

As hailstones are heavy, they fall towards the ground, but because of the frequent upward flow of air, they are repeatedly taken upwards. Here a new layer of snow encapsulates the hail. This happens quite a few times. Hence concentric layers are formed while the hail grows in size.

Because of the upward movement of air, the water droplets go to higher altitude and solidification of these droplets occur and hailstones are formed.