Causes of rain. Why is it raining? Why is it raining

Why does it rain? It is unlikely that a person will begin to ask this question if the sky outside the window has frowned, the first drops have fallen from it, but he urgently needs to leave the house. In this case, people simply take an umbrella and go about their business. But it is quite possible in moments of leisure, philosophizing and contemplation

think about why it rains. There are many constant processes going on in nature. One of them is its main participants: liquids of various kinds and the sun.

The luminary not only illuminates the earth, but also warms it. When water heats up, it transforms into another state - gaseous. Water vapor rises. The higher the vapors rise, the colder the air surrounds them. In these circumstances, the molecules are transformed into crystals during the process of condensation, which, when accumulated, form clouds and clouds. When they dial large mass, their stability is violated. Cloud accumulations are no longer able to hold water, and drops begin to fall out of them. That's why it rains.

The water that falls on the surface of the earth either evaporates again, or seeps into the ground, or immediately enters the reservoir. In any case, the evaporation process begins again. It is infinite and, like everything ingenious, simple.

Usually defined temperature conditions in the subcloud layer, the height of the clouds and their structure. As a rule, clouds bringing precipitation have a mixed composition: ice crystals and drops cold water. Falling out of total mass down, this mixture is transformed in conditions of either warm or frosty air. If the temperature of the subcloud layer is positive, then raindrops reach the ground. If the parameters are negative, snow falls on the ground.

The lower layers of the atmosphere also play a role. If in summer clouds form very high above the ground, in conditions of negative temperatures, then the main composition of the mass consists of ice crystals. This means that snow flies out of the cloud into the subcloud layer. But as they pass through the warm air, the snowflakes melt. Then hail falls to the ground. If they manage to melt completely, then drops of water. That's why it snows, rains, hails.

In the summer - every schoolchild will answer this question. Because it's warm. But why does it rain in winter? It happens that atmospheric phenomena occur with deviation (according to various reasons) from the normal course of events. For example, in winter, mid-latitudes may be affected by warm cloud formations that form in a tropical region over an ocean or sea. In this case, a thaw begins, the previously fallen snow melts, and instead of snowflakes, rain falls on the ground.

This happens in the summer too. Masses of cold air are breaking through from the Arctic. The warm one is pushed back, but at the same time it forms with thick clouds. Rainfall can be extremely heavy. First it rains, then as the air cools it may start to hail or sleet. These precipitations can fall without a cold snap, but always in the presence of heavy clouds. If the front hovers over a certain area, the temperature of the atmosphere will drop even more, then will go to the ground real snow.

I asked my mother this question when I was five years old. We were relaxing on a forest lake then. The weather was wonderful and I didn't get out of the water. But, one day, the weather suddenly deteriorated - it started to rain. He poured straight from clear skies. I had to climb out of the water. I was very upset then and asked my mother: “Why did it rain?” On my children's question she answered very seriously.

Why is it raining

It turns out that this happens when water vapor immediately enters a cold air stream. There it cools and turns into droplets. This summer rain is called “blind”. Its drops are warm and large. In the fall, on the contrary, the rain splashes like cologne from a spray bottle. Why? Because the autumn air is already cold and pieces of ice, forming at high altitudes, then fall down and melt more slowly. And they merge with each other more lazily. So it turns out to be cold, drizzling, “dank” rain. Often before it rains you can see how white clouds gather into one large dark cloud. It is dark because it contains such a large number of moisture that does not let through sunlight. Sometimes, individual drops freeze due to low temperatures. They fall down along with the raindrops - it's coming hail.

Causes of rain

The science that studies different types of precipitation is called meteorology. She highlighted 4 main reasons for rain formation:

• Warm moist air rises. The warmer the air, the more moisture it holds;
• there must be enough moisture in the water vapor to then become rain;
• meeting of warm air masses with cold ones. It is called " atmospheric front" How more difference their temperatures, the heavier the rain;
• the presence of mountains and hills. At the top of the mountain, the temperature drops and the moisture turns into clouds, which then rain.

Our conversation by the lake continued at home. We decided to arrange The water cycle. They took a pan of water, put it on the fire and began to wait. Very soon steam began to rise and settle on the lid of the pan in the form of droplets. The drops merged and fell down to rise again in the form of steam. And this happened again and again. It was raining in the pan.

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It just so happened that I was born in St. Petersburg, a city that is famous throughout Russia for its rainy weather. Well, who knows, I know everything about rains. And about how cold drops gently stroke your face, and about why they generally roll down on us from the sky - that is, why does it rain in the first place?

What is rain and where does it come from?

We all know very well that the planet on which we live has a very large water shell. This:

• Rivers.
• Seas.
• Oceans.
• Lakes.

And many other bodies of water different sizes.

It often seems to us that the water does not disappear from them, but in fact this is not the case. All water on Earth is under the influence solar heat evaporates, filling the atmosphere with tiny droplets.

The wind collects them into heaps - clouds. There the droplets unite, getting heaviere- and go down. This phenomenon is called rain.

Why is it cloudy when it rains?

You've probably noticed: almost always when it rains, the sky is getting dark, and the sun hides. In fact, it is simply blocked by clouds - large and dark. The same ones that store future raindrops.

There are so many of them there that the sun's rays can't get through through such a barrier. That's why clouds seem so dark to us - we call them clouds. For the same reason the weather becomes cloudy.

We're also a little rainy

The most interesting thing is that rain carries a piece of each of us. Every animal, plant and even person.

The fact is that in living organisms to some extent or by me water is present. When the Sun heats us up, it is very important to cool down in time.

In animals and people, thermoregulation occurs with the help of sweat - small droplets of liquid protrude through the pores onto the surface of the skin - and under the influence of the Sun they also evaporate eventually returning to the earth in the form of precipitation.

Why does it rain most often in autumn?

In fact, this is not true at all. Scientists analyzed the frequency of rainfall - and it turned out that in the summer they come even more often! And the rainiest month on average in Russia is June.

And other countries have their own rainy seasons - in Vietnam, for example, it lasts from May to November.

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For me rain - boats in puddles, rubber boots And colorful rainbow . Without rain life is unthinkable on our planet. The rain brings calm, of course, if you don’t have to getting wet under it at the bus stop :(

What is rain

Clouds, visible to us in the sky, are concentration of tiny particles of water that were raised from the ground after evaporation. These pieces are so microscopic that are in a state floating freely in the air. Happening in the clouds circulation of cold and warm currents air, which carries away moisture particles. Those particles, What bigger and are located in the middle layers of the cloud, are moving updraft in upper layer . There's a temperature below, and cooled droplets go down, attracting more small. This movement continues until drops Not will become heavy so much so that they can no longer be raised, and then, under the influence of their own masses, the drops rush down, turning into rain.

However, not always rain has this nature. Similarly, precipitation is formed only in tropics. IN our area, in view climatic features , the temperature in the upper layers of the cloud is almost always below zero. Thus, when entering the top layer, particles transform to microscopic ice crystals. Over time, from crystals snowflakes are forming. Thanks to the same forces, snowflakes rush down, and passing warm layers of the atmosphere turn into droplets, and then outside the window we see rain.

What types of rains are there?

Rain- one of the most familiar to man weather manifestations. It happens long-awaited, dangerous, useful, calming. There are several types of rain:

• blind;
• thunderstorm;
• hail;
• snow;
• bathing;
• shower;
• drizzling;
• strip;
• oblique;
• sieve;
• mushroom.

Applying figurative meaning, we can also mention such a phenomenon as meteor Rain - combustion of several, and sometimes more than a hundred meteorite bodies simultaneously.

Precipitation measurement

Rain- this is one of the varieties precipitation. To analyze the amount of precipitation, meteorologists collect raindrops in special cylinders. The thickness of the water in millimeters will be the value indicating precipitation. IN Moscow precipitation level throughout the year reaches 670 mm., and in South America, in a desert Atacama, the average is 0.1 mm. The rainiest place on Earth is Kauai, part of the group Hawaiian Islands. Here the level reaches 11750 mm. It's hard to believe, but in the year there 350 days of heavy rain.

How the clouds disperse

In reality, clouds do not disperse, but create conditions for precipitation fell at a considerable distance from a place where good clear weather. To do this, from the leeward side, from airplanes, they spray granular dry ice or silver iodide crystals. When entering a cloud, the reagent forms a snowflakeAnd, the water crystallizes, and it starts to rain.

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Questions like this begin to worry the child as early as early age. I remember how I, when I was little and got wet in the rain, asked my grandmother “what is this?” and “where does water come from in the sky?”, and she tried to explain all this to me on her fingers. While I was already at school, I received a more detailed answer to my question from my teachers. Now I will try to be a teacher. So, let's talk about what rain is and where it comes from.

Water cycle in nature

Just as a person sweats profusely on a hot day, so does As the earth heats up, moisture evaporates. Rising upward and gradually cooling water steam condenses into clouds, first in them small drops collect and are held in the atmosphere by air resistance, but the further you go, these drops become heavier and heavier. Having reached a certain critical mass, they have already can't hold on in the cloud and falls to the ground as precipitation. Depending on conditions environment Several types of precipitation can form:

• Rain.
• Snow. At subzero temperatures, water vapor rising upward can bypass the liquid stage and immediately turn into solid snowflakes, which, falling lower, gradually melt and take the form of the snow we are familiar with.
• Hail. When evaporated moisture rises too high, into the upper layers of the atmosphere, at subzero temperatures it can crystallize. Frozen water crystals have heavy weight and it’s quite difficult for them to stay in the cloud. In this case, we see the fall of “solid rain” or simply “hail”.

• The rain caused weather forecasts to appear on the radio. Once the owner of a popular American radio stations was outside when it was raining and after that he ordered the establishment new section in which they will tell about possible rain several times a day.
• In hot weather Botswana and South Africa The national currency is called "rain".
• Approximately one person in a million is allergic to rain. When falling under water, a person turns red and becomes covered in spots; if timely assistance is not provided, he may even die.
• in 1986, a hailstone weighing one hailstone fell from the sky more than a kilogram, then 92 people died from this phenomenon.

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At school they quickly explained to us why it rains. So fluently that the fragile brains of second-graders could not comprehend such a quick, short and at the same time intelligent explanation. From that explanation I only remember that this is part of " water cycle"Then the whole class (or rather, only those who were interested) went to the library, took, as I remember now, the Erudite encyclopedia and began to search. Now I’ll try to retell everything that I remember from that moment, and I’ll season it with current knowledge, of which there are also many.

Why does it rain

First you need to understand why it rains and where the water for rain comes from. Water is taken from steam - clouds. It gets there when the sun heats the surface of the earth/reservoirs and moisture from these surfaces evaporates, the steam later rises and collects in clouds in the sky. In addition to water from the surface of the earth, there is evaporation from living objects. People sweat, just excess water evaporate and are derived from since then And stomata plants too evaporate excess water. All this water goes to form rain.

Rain mechanism

Let's look at several mechanisms. First:

1. In the sky from behind cold temperature steam condenses into light droplets who are still not heavy enough to fall.
2. Drops moving in the sky chaotic.
3. Sometimes they collide And merge into larger ones.
4. Larger drops much heavier than the original ones and therefore they are under the influence of gravity fall down.

1. Low temperature in stock high humidity forces steam condenses in more large droplets.
2. These a bit too much heavy enough to float in the clouds.
3. Drops under the influence of gravity fall down and rain down on the ground.

As you can easily see, in this case there is no chaotic movement of the drops.

Third mechanism:

Meet in the sky warm air masses and cold air masses. Cold air cools warm air and then there are two ways. According to the first, the air is not very cool and he starts condense and are formed raindrops that fall down. The second way is that the air cools so much that the drops freeze and snowing.

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The world is full of a wide variety of phenomena, and in ancient times many of them were considered a real miracle. What can we say about the ancients, if I myself thought so as a child. When I grew up, I learned more about the world around me, and the rain, from an unusual miracle for me, became simply a natural phenomenon.

What did the ancient Slavs say about rain?

Myths and legends have been formed by our ancestors for centuries. The plots were most often based on phenomena that were considered mystical. Today, hardly anyone will agree that rain is a message higher powers. Rain was both punishment and salvation for people: if it rained in a dry year, the people thanked heaven for their mercy, and if it rained without stopping, they were angry at the punishment sent.

Modern science of rain

Rain is a long process. The clouds that we see in the sky every day contain droplets of water that are in constant motion. In the cloud itself, the droplets “meet” each other and form larger droplets. How do these droplets get into the clouds? Very simple: The sun warms the water on the surface:

• ocean;
• seas;
• rivers;
• puddles.

The water begins to evaporate and rise gradually upward, forming those same clouds. It’s hard to think that such a miracle can be explained so simply.

What is acid rain

Acid rain is an extremely unpleasant thing and it is better to never encounter such a phenomenon. Such rain is called any precipitation that occurs as a result of air pollution with nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides and others. acid oxides. How does it appear acid rain? Basically, you can say “thank you” for such a negative phenomenon to various enterprises producing cars, heat and electricity.

Places on Earth where they don't know about rain

Many scientists believe that there are no such places. Even in the hottest deserts there will be a little rain at least once a year and at least for a couple of minutes. But there is the wettest place on the planet: the village of Mosinram in India. It doesn't rain continuously there every day, but the annual rainfall makes people admit that in this area they won't have to suffer from water shortages.

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We all have had the opportunity to observe rain at least once in our lives. Be it small, slightly dripping, or torrential, generously watering nature. Let me try to explain why it is raining? Rain is precipitation that falls from clouds in the form of water droplets.

There are different types of rain

The rain can be barely noticeable, but on the contrary, it can be torrential and frightening. Kinds:

• drizzling;
• showers;
• "blind";
• "dry".

More than once I observed how lightly dripping rain smoothly turned into a light rain, which eventually ended in heavy downpour, and sometimes even hail. We all know from school that rain drops have a diameter of up to 0.5 millimeters. If they are smaller in diameter, then such precipitation is called not rain, but drizzle.

So why does it rain?

In order for it to rain, there needs to be a cloud of ice crystals or tiny drops of water, or both. The heaviest rain occurs when there is a mixture of crystals in the cloud ice and drops water.

At first, the water droplets in the cloud resemble water dust. Such dust droplets move upward, and when the flow weakens, they begin to fall very slowly - at a speed of 1-2 centimeters per second. Further water flow drives up and that's all cloud. And since the air temperature drops every 100 meters, the droplets gradually turn into tiny pieces of ice. The most interesting thing is just beginning... Ice floes and droplets collide with each other, merge or freeze, become heavier and, finally, rush to the ground. Along the way, the pieces of ice melt and fall to the ground in the form of drops. It happens that in cloudsNopieces of ice, then the small ones fall to the ground, like from a sieve, drizzling rain.

Shower

Downpour we are used to calling rain such force when it falls in a minute more than one millimetersprecipitation. But this figure can be higher.

"Blind Rains"

When the sun is shining and not a cloud is visible, a haze appears overhead. On the ground loud spanking large drops. Water vapor does not have time to gather into a cloud, as a stream of cold air rushes onto them.

Having figured it out, why is it raining, we understand how multifaceted and amazing nature is, how it properly manages its resources, giving us these gifts!

Answer from Oksana[guru]
The sun warms the water in the ocean, in the sea, in the river, in any puddle.
The water evaporates, turns into transparent steam and rises upward, to where warm air currents carry it along with them, because warm air is lighter than cold air, it always tends to rush upward.
Light water vapor rises higher and higher from the earth heated by the sun and climbs high, to where it is constantly, even on the hottest summer day, very cold, like in winter.
The steam is warm, and when it touches cold air, it turns into tiny droplets of water.
The droplets are light, like fluff, they stay in the air perfectly, soar and move all the time, because everyone is pushing them; new and new streams of warm air rising from the ground.
Warm air throws droplets even higher, cold air drags them down; So they fly, tiny travelers, now up, now down; they dance, merge together, become larger.
There are very, very many of them, and all together they form a cloud.
At the top of the cloud the droplets freeze - it is very cold there; they turn into pieces of ice, grow, become heavier, and now they can no longer stay in the cloud and fall down. And when they fall, they melt, because it’s much warmer below; They become droplets of water again, merge together - and it rains on the ground.
It rains because there is water
Constantly strives for the ground.
Because it's already cold
And in heaven someone can't sleep.
Because when I fell in love with you,
I got lost among three pines,
Because, not loving warmth,
Sad autumn has arrived.
The author of the poems, unfortunately I don’t know who...

Answer from Elena Maksimova[newbie]
When heavy black clouds gather in the sky, people say: “It will rain.” Most often it actually begins. But where did the clouds come from, and why does it rain from them? The reason for all this is the Sun. It heats the surface of the planet and the water in the oceans, lakes and rivers turns into steam. It mixes with air.
Rising warm air spreads water vapor into the atmosphere. Cooling down, the air gives up part of its load, and invisible water vapor becomes water again. Clouds form from its droplets. This process, the opposite of evaporation, is called condensation. Inside the cloud, tiny droplets gradually grow, collecting more and more moisture. Finally, the drops become so large that they can no longer be held aloft by air currents and fall to the ground in the form of rain.
Evaporation occurs throughout the day. Water vapor rises into the atmosphere. But in order for it to turn into clouds consisting of tiny droplets, solid particles are also needed on the surface of which the steam could condense. If there are no or very few dust particles or ice crystals in the air, condensation may not occur.
This is how events develop on a warm summer day, when in the morning the sun shines in the bright sky, and in the afternoon the clouds thicken and rain pours on the ground, sometimes a strong but short shower. These are local rains. Long, lingering rains, lasting two to three days, or even a week, bring powerful air vortices- cyclops. Residents European plain rain pours water that has evaporated from the surface Atlantic Ocean. By determining the speed of movement of the cyclone, meteorologists can predict the time of onset of rainy weather.
Have you ever wondered why it rains? Who is crying there in heaven? Maybe someone is feeling bad there at this moment? It's so bad that I can't hold back my tears. And they drip to the ground, falling from the cheeks of an angel sitting on a gloomy gray cloud... Do you know why there are different types of rain? In summer, angels are happy, and their tears appear only from happiness. That's why it rains when the sun shines. And it is reflected in their eyes. And from these highlights we get a rainbow.
And by autumn, the angels begin to feel sad, they cry more and more often and hide their eyes in the clouds... Then the tears fall to the ground sadly, quietly... This is the autumn rain. In winter, angels begin to feel sad without love... And tears, falling from their eyes down to the ground, turn into snowflakes, cold, prickly... Here they are... different rains...
Source: link

Answer from Vitaly Norokh[newbie]
water evaporates, water drips. simple

Answer from User deleted[active]
and in the high layers of the atmosphere, steam condenses into water and falls to the ground - it’s simple

Answer from Anna[guru]
Rain is the result of a complex and long-term process involving the sun, earth and air. First the earth is warmed by the sun. As a result, the water of the oceans, seas, lakes, as well as the moisture contained in the soil, turns into water vapor. This steam is then mixed with air. This is how the evaporation process takes place.
And then together with the lighter warm air water vapor rises high into the sky, where it cools and turns into clouds. This process is called condensation.
What happens next to the water vapor inside the clouds? The tiny droplets of water contained in the clouds gradually grow, absorbing more and more moisture. Finally the drops become so heavy that the air currents are unable to hold them, and they fall to the ground as rain. That's why it rains.
The process of water evaporation occurs almost around the clock, and water vapor rises. But it doesn't rain every day. It is not always the case that invisible vapors turn into visible raindrops. This is explained by the fact that a certain surface is required for the condensation process to occur. If there are few or virtually no dust particles in the air, then condensation does not occur. Snowflakes and ice crystals that are high in the clouds facilitate the condensation process.
If warm and cold air currents collide in the atmosphere, it will most likely result in rain. Warm air contains a lot of moisture, which is cooled by cold air currents. Invisible vapors turn into heavy drops of water, which fall to the ground.

After the director of one of the American radio stations got wet to the skin after falling under autumn rain, the program “Weather Forecast” appeared on the air, which did not previously exist. The information turned out to be relevant, because it never hurts to find out whether it’s worth taking an umbrella today and whether you need to leave the house, since, for example, in Portugal rain and wind are good reason so as not to show up for work.

Rain is one of the types atmospheric precipitation, which fall mainly from nimbostratus and altostratus clouds in the form of water droplets with a diameter of 0.5 to 7 mm. Rain usually comes from mixed clouds containing supercooled droplets or ice crystals.

Raindrops fall after small spherical particles of water merge into larger ones, or when they freeze to an ice crystal. Unlike the generally accepted opinion, they do not have the shape of a teardrop, since they are flattened on the bottom side due to the pressure of the oncoming air flow.

At first, these droplets are light enough that the air allows them to remain in the cloud. Since inside the cloud they are constantly moving and colliding with each other, merging and increasing in size, they begin to gradually descend downwards, continuing to increase. This process continues until the water particles gain the required mass, allowing them to overcome air resistance and shed raindrops on the ground.

If water particles are in clouds, where the temperature inside is high enough not to turn into ice crystals, the fusion of droplets with each other occurs constantly and extremely intensely. Rain does not come from them as often as from clouds, the temperature inside of which is below zero: in order to fall out of the cloud, ice crystals gain the necessary mass quite quickly.

If between the cloud and the surface of the earth at this time there is a very high difference in temperature terms, the frozen crystals melt before reaching the earth's surface - and raindrops fall on the ground (the largest drops are produced when hail melts).

Interestingly, the larger the precipitation drops, the heavier the rain, but it usually passes quite quickly. The rate of such precipitation can range from 9 to 30 m/s (usually this is typical for summer or spring rain). But if the raindrops turn out to be small, then such precipitation can last for several days and even weeks - the water flies to the ground “slowly”, at a speed of 2 to 6.6 m/s, which is typical for autumn rains.

Precipitation intensity

One of the important indicators of precipitation in nature is the recording of rain intensity - the volume of raindrops falling over a certain time.

The thickness of the layer of fallen rainwater is usually measured in millimeters: one millimeter of water layer is equal to one kilogram of raindrops falling on one square meter(precipitation intensity usually ranges from 1.25 mm/h to 100 mm/h). Considering the amount of precipitation that falls over a certain period of time, light, moderate and heavy rain are distinguished.

Cover precipitation

At a speed of 2.5 mm/h, light rain falls regardless of the time of year at above-zero temperatures in moderate and high latitudes from dark altostratus, nimbostratus and cumulonimbus clouds. Covering precipitation lasts from several hours to several weeks and covers a vast area. If precipitation of this type is prolonged, then it quite often harms nature: the humidity in the atmosphere increases greatly, and plants begin to rot due to oversaturation with moisture.

Drizzle

Moderate rain falls at a rate of 2.5 to 8 mm/h in the form of small droplets from stratus and stratocumulus clouds. These precipitations do not last long, from several hours to two days, their quantity is minimal, and therefore the rain does not have a negative impact on nature.

Rainfall

Rainfall is heavy rain with the wind, which often falls in temperate latitudes usually in the warm season. This type of heavy rain is characterized by high speed loss (more than 8 mm/h) and short duration, no more than a few hours. The exception is May rain, which can last up to three days, as well as rainfall that falls in tropical and equatorial latitudes. The rainy season here often lasts several months, and torrential rain falls almost non-stop with an intensity of 25-30 mm/min.

It should be noted that thunderstorms are often accompanied by heavy rain, so in such weather it is better to find shelter in order to avoid accidents. It is interesting that the occurrence of a thunderstorm is directly related to the Sun - in mid-latitudes such a natural phenomenon can be observed in the afternoon and very rarely before dawn.

In Europe, the heaviest rain fell in Germany in the twenties of the last century, when its indicators were 15.5 mm/min. As for the heaviest precipitation on a planetary scale, rain with an intensity of 38 mm/min was recorded in the lands of Guadeloupe.

Heavy rain is often accompanied by thunderstorms and gusty winds, which causes significant harm to both nature and humans. The consequences of such rain and wind are often landslides, floods, and soil erosion. Such weather conditions can cause death and also cause ecological disaster. When it comes to strong pouring rain, then it is not so much its duration that is important as its intensity: the more drops that fall, the more harmful the consequences will be.

Rainy season

There are areas on Earth where it falls greatest number precipitation. This phenomenon is known as the "rainy season" and can be observed in tropical and subtropical latitudes. The closer to the equator the rainy season, the more prolonged the precipitation, lasting from May to October. In tropical regions more distant from the equator, the rainy season consists of two periods and gives people a certain respite (the rain belt does not stand still and gradually moves following the zenith of the Sun from the northern to the southern tropics and back).

Tropical summer rain usually begins suddenly, and the raindrops, having formed one continuous stream, pour onto the ground in such a dense wall that at a distance of one meter little can be distinguished. As a result, precipitation of such intensity can not only completely flood cities and villages in a few hours, but also cause mudflows and floods.

I wonder what for local residents the rainy season is a common occurrence, they have long been accustomed to such weather conditions and know how to act, for example, almost all houses in Thailand are built on stilts. That is why tourists are not recommended to visit the equatorial and tropical countries during a similar period. Storms and hurricanes also occur quite often; in the Philippines alone, during one rainy season, about thirty hurricanes and storms fly over the country.

Precipitation in temperate latitudes

The further from the equator, the weaker the rainy season is, and in temperate latitudes it disappears altogether: precipitation here is evenly distributed throughout the year and its abundance depends not so much on the Sun as on the winds and mountain ranges. For example:

• Spring rain is typical for the entire territory of Europe and during the first two months the rains constantly alternate with the Sun. Showers often start at last days spring;
• In Germany, warm rain can be observed throughout the summer. In Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, in the middle and of Eastern Europe August is considered one of the rainiest months;
• Autumn cold rain observed in Norway, France, Italy and the Balkans in October and November, when warm weather gradually replaced by frost;
• Winter cold rain can be seen mainly in the south of Europe - in the Balkans, in the west and south of the Iberian Peninsula, but it is also common in the northern territories, for example, it often falls in Scotland and the Faroe Islands.

Rains and nature

The role of precipitation in the life of nature is difficult to overestimate, since it both gives life and takes it away. Rain and wind, forming squalls, thunderstorms, hurricanes, can destroy houses, destroy crops, nullify all a person’s efforts and even deprive him of life or health. The consequences of heavy rainfall are often catastrophic.

Raindrops also give life: after rainfall, nature is renewed and comes to life. For example, all mushroom pickers look forward to mushroom rain. This is a drizzling warm rain that falls from clouds located low above the earth's surface during the period of mushroom growth. It is interesting that, unlike other precipitation, mushroom rain does not last long, raindrops wet the soil well, and all the mushrooms in the soil begin to grow extremely well.

> Why is it raining?

How is rain formed?– description for children and adults: why it rains on Earth, diagram of the water cycle, amount of precipitation, rain on other planets.

Rain brings joy to farmers in the heat and sadness to melancholic people. You're glad to see him if you can't stand it anymore summer heat and get angry if you had to go shopping. However, why does it rain at all and how is it formed on the planet?

Let's start with the fact that rain is a liquid type of precipitation. Here you can’t do without deciphering the water cycle. It all starts with the Sun evaporating water from various bodies of water, provided that the air temperature is above 0°C. The steam then rises into the atmosphere, where it condenses into water droplets. Their weight makes them fall to the ground again.

This is the well-known water cycle in nature. It is often used to describe the journey of a liquid from bottom to top and back again. For the appearance of rain, two points are important: saturation and coalescence.

Saturation

In this process, invisible water vapor condenses on microwave particles, creating tiny droplets. Usually this criterion is conveyed under the guise relative humidity– percentage of total number water vapor that can persist at a certain air temperature.

The amount of water vapor retained before saturation (100% humidity) and transformation into a cloud depends on its temperature level (the warmer, the more).

Merger

This process occurs when the air becomes saturated. Then the water droplets begin to merge to create larger ones (occurs due to turbulence in the airspace).

They combine until their weight breaks through the air resistance and they fall as rain. It is important to understand that rain is the main source fresh water for many countries and also provides the necessary conditions in various ecosystems.

Measurement

In order to record the amount of precipitation, special rain sensors were invented. Most often, they are represented by two cylinders (like a nesting doll) filled with water. The internal one is filled first and transfers water to the second. The remaining precipitation in the outside gives overall assessment in millimeters.

There is also a clinometer, and the cheapest option is a cylinder with a measuring stick. Precipitation is also monitored by weather radar.

Changing of the climate

Of course, changes in climate, such as global warming, greatly affect the usual amount of precipitation. Increased quantity emissions carbon dioxide increased the mark average temperature Worldwide. This means that much more water has evaporated.

Behind past century the amount of precipitation north of 30° increased, but decreased in the tropics. It may be noted that the Northern and South America, Northern Europe and Asia have become wetter. But the drought has intensified in Africa and southern Asia.

Rain on other planets

Yes we don't the only world where it rains. In our solar system there is wet precipitation, although it has virtually no connection with water. For example, on Venus it rains all the time, but you wouldn't want to walk under this stream made of sulfuric acid!

It forms high in the atmosphere, where the wind accelerates to 360 km/h. But the droplets immediately evaporate because the surface is heated to 460°C. On Saturn's moon Titan, this is methane rain. It generally has an active hydrological cycle, where hydrocarbon takes the place of water.

Recently we received even more amazing curiosities. Liquid helium rain can occur on Saturn and Jupiter. It is believed that due to the enormous pressure on everyone gas giants there are “diamond deposits”. And it's not a joke. The planets contain methane, which when pressurized forms diamonds.

And another fascinating case - coronal sunny rain. This occurs during a coronal mass ejection, during which the plasma cools and falls to the surface. Even whole splashes are created.