 Precipitation
 (pre-sip-uh-tay-shun) is
any form of water that
falls to the Earth's
surface.
Types of Precipitation
 The type of precipitation that
falls to the ground depends
upon how it forms and the
temperatures between the
cloud and the surface below.
Can you name the different
types of precipitation?
 Rain
 Snow
 Hail
 Sleet
 Freezing Rain
Rain

Rain develops when
growing cloud droplets
become too heavy to
remain in the cloud and
as a result, fall toward the
surface as rain.
 Rain can also
begin as ice
crystals that
 As the falling
collect to form snow passes
large
through the
snowflakes
freezing level
into warmer
air, the flakes
melt
Rain from snow!
Snow
 Snow is formed when
ice crystals form from
water vapor that is in
the clouds directly
above your heads!
 This process is called
sublimation
Hail
 Hail is formed when
updrafts carry
raindrops upwards
into extremely cold
areas of the
atmosphere.
 There the raindrops
merge and freeze.
 When the frozen
clumps get too heavy
they fall to earth
Hail
 Hail can vary
in size, from
the size of a
small stone to
that of a
baseball! So
be careful
Sleet
 Sleet is frozen raindrops.
 Sleet begins as rain or snow
and falls through a deep
layer of cold air that
contains temperatures below
freezing that exist near the
surface.
Sleet
 Rain that falls
through this
extremely cold
layer has time
to freeze into
small pieces of
ice
Freezing Rain
 Freezing rain is falling rain that
cools below 0°C, but does not
turn to ice in the air
 The water is “supercooled”
When the drops hit the surface
they instantly turn to ice!
*On Back, copy this table, Fill out
table, and then copy graph from PPT*
Rain
What is it?
Characteristics
How is it formed?
*Graph
Real World
Examples/Pictures
Snow
Sleet
Freezing
Rain
Hail