How does it rain for kids

The dirt, dust, and chemicals in the air pollution travel up into the atmosphere during the process of evaporation. These tiny particles become part of the clouds, which also makes them part of the rain that falls. If you collected rain from a quiet forest far away from any buildings and rain from a city, you would see lots of differences in the rain if you were to look at it under a microscope.

Convectional rainfall takes place when the sun warms the surface of the Earth, causing water to evaporate. This then causes water vapor to form. The condensation increases the water vapor concentration, allowing moisture to evaporate more easily and cloud formation.

When a storm approaches, it travels as a warm frontal system, moving around the ocean from west to east. With the thunderstorms passing over land, air carries the warm air from the front into the clouds and gives them condensation.

As the winds change, the cloud base will quickly evaporate. As the cool air reaches the surface, cloud tops are continuously topped with evaporated water vapor.

Relief rainfall is also known as orographic rainfall, it generally occurs in areas where the land increases in height. Relief rainfall is found in areas where the land moves upward and downward in response to gravity and wind. A wave may break over a few small points, and this movement is called flood or orographic flow. There are many examples of this phenomenon in various coastal plains of the United States and Canada. Two effects will result from relief rainfall.

Do flash floods hurt people? Flash floods are the 1 weather-related killer in the U. Know beforehand if your area is a flood risk. How much water is needed for your car to float away? A mere 2 feet of water can float a large vehicle or even a bus. This is why you should never drive through flooded roads. Just 6 inches of rapidly moving flood water can knock a person down.

What is a monsoon? A monsoon is a seasonal wind, found especially in Asia that reverses direction between summer and winter and often brings heavy rains. In the summer, a high pressure area lies over the Indian Ocean while a low exists over the Asian continent.

The air masses move from the high pressure over the ocean to the low over the continent, bringing moisture-laden air to south Asia. During winter, the process is reversed and a low sits over the Indian Ocean while a high lies over the Tibetan plateau so air flows down the Himalaya and south to the ocean. The migration of trade winds and westerlies also contributes to the monsoons. Smaller monsoons take place in equatorial Africa, northern Australia, and, to a lesser extent, in the southwestern United States.

What is radar? Radar is an electronic instrument, which determines the direction and distance of objects that reflect radio energy back to the radar site. It stands for Radio Detection and Ranging.

This is what meteorologists use to see rain or snow. What is Doppler Radar? Doppler Radar detects precipitation intensity, wind direction and speed, and provides estimates of hail size and rainfall amounts. Doppler Radar gives forecasters the capability of providing early detection of severe thunderstorms that may bring strong damaging winds, large hail, heavy rain, and possibly tornadoes. Combined with satellites, radar gives forecasters the ultimate tools to provide accurate forecasts and advanced severe weather warnings.

How does Doppler Radar work? Doppler Radar gets its name from the Doppler Effect. Have you ever listened to a train whistle as it was coming toward you? You probably noticed that the pitch of the whistle changed as the train passed you and moved away.

This change in the frequency of sound is called the Doppler Effect. Doppler Radar measures the changes in the frequency of the signal it receives to determine the wind. This radar produces many different views of storms and rain that allows meteorologists to determine if a storm could be severe.

Water stays in some places longer than others. A drop of water may spend over 3, years in the ocean before moving on to another part of the water cycle. On average a drop of water spends an average of 8 days in the atmosphere before falling back down to Earth. The highest amount of rainfall ever recorded in one year was 1, inches in Cherrapunji, India.

That is a lot of rain. Antarctica is the driest continent on Earth. Do you think rain is just water? It can have all sorts of things in it like dirt, dust, insects , grass or even chemicals! Precipitation — any form of water that falls to the Earth.