The water or hydrological cycle. Types of precipitation (rain) - convectional, frontal and relief.

The water or hydrological cycle. Types of precipitation (rain) - convectional, frontal and relief.

Have a look to this transcription!

Climate and Weather 4 0f 5.

The water or Hydrological cycle.

Types of precipitation (rain).

Stages in the rainmaking process.

Stage 1.

1, Evaporation.

Warm air causes water to evaporate; this could be the sea, lakes, rivers, or even water from the soil and from vegetation.

Evaporate: That is the water turns into vapour.

That’s right.

Stage 2.

Warm air rises carrying the water vapour with it.

Look.

Stage 3.

Cooling to Dew point.

Rising air cools to dew point.

Dew Point. This is the temperature at which becomes air saturated in water vapour.

Now the air is saturated,that means it cannot hold anymore vapour.

Stage 4. Condensation.

Further cooling causes condensation which means the water vapour turns back into minute droplets of water.

That’s how clouds form.

Stage 5.  Finally Precipitation.

Further cooling produces precipitation.

There you go. Now know what rain is. But not all the types of rain are the same. There are three types of rainfall.

Types of rainfall.

1. Relief Rainfall
2. Convectional Rainfall
3. Frontal Rainfall.

Relief Rainfall is caused by air forced to rise over hills or mountains.

Convectional Rainfall is caused by warm air rising because the ground is warmed up by the sun.

In Britain this would only happen occasionally but at the Equator, because is so hot, it happens everyday.

Frontal Rainfall is causes by a warm air mass and the cold air mass meeting and it occurs in depressions.

We will look at those in a minute.

Summary of Part 4.

In this part we’ve learnt that there are five stages in the rain making process.

1. Evaporation.
2. Vapour Rising
3.  Cooling to Dew point.
4. Condensation.
5. Precipitation.