Rain is water that falls from the clouds when
it gets too heavy. Rain is actually gravity in motion. The earth’s water cycle
pulls water from the ground, rivers, oceans, lakes and streams up into the sky.
This is called evaporation. The evaporated water is warm when it leaves the
earth’s surface, but the farther up into the sky or atmosphere it goes, the
cooler it gets.
As it cools, it clumps together. This is how
clouds are formed. Depending on the temperature of the surface and the air
nearest the surface of the earth, rain can also be snow, sleet, ice, and hail. Raindrops
are spherical when they first take shape, and then they flatten out into more
of a hamburger bun shape as they collide with other raindrops on their way to
the ground.
Clouds are formed when a warm air mass meets a cold air
mass. Usually, the warm air gets pushed up over the cold air. As the warm air
rises, condensation occurs – meaning the air cools to a point where it will
condense from its gas state into a water state. Because warm air rises, the
rising air pulls the drop up, effectively catching it before it can fall down
to Earth’s surface.
The two most common types of rain-producing clouds are
nimbostratus clouds and cumulonimbus clouds. The nimbostratus clouds are dark,
grey, and low. It’s a continuous rain cloud that means rain is imminent.
Cumolonimbus clouds are thunderstorm
clouds that usually take the shape of a
mountain or tower, with a darkened bottom. These are the clouds that also
produce hail and tornadoes.
This is called an updraft. And updraft may occur many times during a storm and all the
while, more water is condensing onto the raindrop. This determines how heavy
the raindrop is and if it eventually turns into something like hail. It finally
falls to the ground when its density is heavier than the cloud from which it
originated, or when the updraft dies out.
Did you know that…
·
Desserts get less rain than any other
type of climate except the continent of Antarctica. It is the driest continent
on Earth.
·
More rain falls in tropical places than
in any other type of climate.
·
Most raindrops are very tiny—no more
than ¼ inch in diameter.
·
Rain is also used to create electricity.
We call this hydroelectricity or hydropower.
·
Raindrops fall at a speed of 5 to 18
miles per hour depending on the size of the raindrops.
“Rain and snow fall from the sky. They don’t
return without watering the ground. They cause the plants to sprout and grow.
And the plants make seeds for the farmer. And from these seeds people have
bread to eat.” (Isaiah
55:10, ICB)[i]
[i] Sources used:
·
“5
things you didn't know about rain” by Chanie Kirschner
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