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Title: Precipitating Weather Reading Passage Precipitation is any form of water (either liquid or solid) that falls from the atmosphere and reaches the ground, such as rain, snow, or hail. Changes in tropical precipitation patterns have noted a higher frequency of the El Niño phenomenon over the past twenty one years. When this event occurs, the world can expect more months with unusually high, or low, precipitation with droughts more common than floods over land areas. There has been a 1% increase of precipitation over land during the 20th century. Snow is made up of transparent ice crystals formed around dust or other small particulates in the atmosphere when water vapor condenses at temperatures below the freezing point. Because of the infinite variability of weather conditions, every crystal is unique in its precise configuration, and it is the large number of reflecting surfaces of the crystal that makes snow appear white. Hail, another form of precipitation consisting of roughly spherical pellets of ice and snow, is usually combined in alternating layers. True hailstones occur only at the beginning of thunderstorms and never when the ground temperature is below freezing. Often several hailstones freeze together into a large, shapeless, heavy mass of ice and snow. Clouds are visible aggregates of tiny water droplets and/or ice crystals suspended in the atmosphere and can exist in a variety of shapes and sizes. Some clouds are accompanied by precipitation; rain, snow, hail, sleet, even freezing rain. |
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