Friday, July 20, 2012

The weather report

It's raining,

Precipitation is evident,

Let me...'splain

Precipitation forms when cloud droplets (or ice particles) in clouds grow and combine to become so large that their fall speed exceeds the updraft speed in the cloud, and they then fall out of the cloud. If these large water drops or ice particles do not re-evaporate as they fall farther below the cloud, they reach the ground as precipitation.


Precipitation that does re-evaporate before reaching the ground is called "virga"
The more water vapor there is below the cloud, and the stronger the updrafts that cause this water vapor to condense into cloud water or ice particles, the more likely it is that precipitation will form within the cloud.


So, a cloudy day with no precipitation indicates that there is either (1) not enough water vapor available to the cloud for precipitation to form, or (2) that the rising motion creating the cloud is not strong enough -- or both.
 
So to make it really simple...if you go outside and there is water falling on you from the sky....It's raing

No comments:

Post a Comment