Why is it raining? Why does it rain - where does it come from?

Children are very inquisitive. They hope to always receive comprehensive answers to their many questions from adults.

When a child sees rain, on the street, in a picture or in a cartoon, he may have a question: Why? it's raining? Where does it come from in the clouds? How is it formed? Why does it fall from the sky?

Rain is one of the stages of the water cycle in nature. When the Sun shines on the Earth, it warms it up. There are many different bodies of water on our planet - rivers, lakes, seas and oceans. The light and warmth of the sun heats all this water. Some of the water becomes steam. These are very small droplets of water that are difficult to see individually.

We see it when water boils in a saucepan or kettle. The steam is very light, which is why it rises into the sky. When there are a lot of small droplets of steam, you get clouds that float in the sky, high above our heads. They are driven by the wind.

While the air is warm, nothing happens to them. But when the air gets cold, small droplets of steam are attracted to each other and become larger raindrops.

Gradually the clouds become heavy and large. And then they rain down on the Earth.

How to make rain with your own hands?

You can demonstrate a simple experiment to your child at home. To do this, put a pan of water on the fire. Hold the lid over the pan. To keep it constantly cold, place pieces of ice on top. As the water heats up, steam will form. It will rise and settle on the bottom of the lid. The steam droplets will begin to connect. The child will then see large droplets of water dripping back into the pan. This is how you get artificial rain at home.

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We monitor the weather forecast to find out if it is expected to rain and whether to take an umbrella with us. Many people like to walk in the rain, some sleep soundly to the sound of it, others, on the contrary, cannot stand the slush and dampness that it brings. We have observed this phenomenon more than once. So why is it raining?

Cloud Formation

Rain is droplets of water falling from clouds floating across the sky. They come in a wide variety of shapes: giant waves, huge pieces of cotton wool, bird wings, etc. Sometimes the whole sky is covered with a huge dark cloud. Clouds are composed entirely of water droplets or ice crystals. As the earth warms sun rays Some of the moisture evaporates and rises into the air as steam. Water vapor rises from all reservoirs, rivers, lakes, seas, every blade of grass evaporates water, and a person exhales the vapor. The higher the air temperature and humidity, the large quantity vapor forms and condenses into tiny droplets of water or ice crystals (if the air is cold). This is how clouds are formed. By understanding the mechanism of rain formation, one can control such a great process as

Why doesn't it rain from all the clouds?

Rain doesn't come from every cloud. For rain to fall, the droplets must be quite large. In the cloud, their sizes gradually increase, water vapor is deposited on small water droplets in the air, and they also merge with each other as they move. A cloud consisting only of water is slower to turn into rain cloud, but mixed clouds quickly become rain. Their lower part consists of water, and the upper part consists of ice crystals. That's why it rains or rains. It is these mixed clouds that spill onto the ground in a continuous shower.

What kind of rain is there?

It is customary to divide precipitation into 3 types: showers, drizzle and heavy rains. Many give them more detailed definitions: prolonged, short-term, warm, cold, etc. Rain is often accompanied by snow or hail. It can also be “mushroom”, “blind”, icy, exotic, radioactive and even stellar.

When it's drizzling, there's a dampness in the air, but it's almost impossible to get wet. It is almost invisible, since the water droplets are very small and frequent. They do not form characteristic circles in puddles. With such rain, fog and dampness increase, and visibility deteriorates.

Why is it raining or hailing?

Storm clouds form when warm air masses meet cold air. The reason may also be heatwave. The wet soil becomes very hot, and the evaporation forms massive, water-heavy clouds. A rainstorm begins suddenly and ends just as suddenly; it usually does not last long, but it can be very strong. Tropical showers, on the contrary, can be very long. Such rains often cause floods. Rain and hail can only begin in hot weather when there is a lot of moisture in the air. Ice crystals form in cumulonimbus clouds, and when they can no longer be suspended due to their size, they fall to the ground in the form of hail. Large hail even penetrates the roofs of houses and can injure people.

Why is it raining mushrooms?

“Blind” or “mushroom” rain occurs in the summer, in sunny weather. After it, a rainbow almost always appears. By folk beliefs After such rain, mushrooms begin to grow, hence its name. This is usually a warm short rain, during which the sun shines.

The formation of a cloud begins with the process of vaporization, which occurs constantly in nature. The sun heats the earth and water bodies, and thereby accelerates evaporation. The droplets detached from the water surface are so small that they are held above the ground by warm air currents. Light transparent steam mixes with air masses and rushes upward with them.

Meanwhile, the evaporation of water from the surface of the soil and reservoirs continues. The wind blows small clouds of fog together. A cloud forms. Tiny droplets of water vapor move chaotically, sometimes they merge and become larger during collisions. However, this is not enough to start.

For this to happen, the droplets must become large and heavy enough that rising air currents cannot hold them. One raindrop is created by merging with a million other cloud droplets. This is a very long process.

Rain clouds are formed in the troposphere - the lowest layer of the atmosphere. The troposphere is heating up, so the air temperature at the surface of the planet is very different from the temperature a few kilometers above it - it drops by an average of 6 ° C for each rise. Even in summer heat At an altitude of 8-9 km above the surface of the Earth, a downright arctic cold reigns, and temperatures of -30°C are not at all uncommon here.

Processes occurring inside the cloud

Water vapor rising upward along with air currents gradually cools and then freezes, turning into tiny ice crystals. Thus, at the top of the rain cloud there are ice crystals, and at the bottom there are water droplets.

Water vapor condenses inside the cloud. As is known, this process is possible only in the presence of some kind of surface. Water vapor settles on water droplets, all kinds of dust particles and specks raised upward by rising air currents, as well as on ice crystals. The size and weight of the crystals increases rapidly. They can no longer stay in the air and fall down.

As they pass through the cloud, the ice crystals become even larger and heavier as condensation continues. If the temperature at the lower boundary of the cloud is above zero, the ice floes melt and fall to the ground in the form of rain; if it is below zero, it hails.

And then everything starts all over again. Numerous rain streams form, which replenish the earth's reservoirs. Some of the fallen moisture seeps through the soil and ends up in underground reservoirs. And part of the water evaporates, and a cloud forms above the ground.

Every person has encountered this natural phenomenon. We have all hidden from the rain under umbrellas many times and have long been accustomed to checking before a walk whether there are any clouds in the sky. And the most curious are sure to ask the question, where does this rain come from?

Where does water for rain come from in the sky?

It turns out everything is very simple. Under the influence of the sun's heat, tiny droplets of water evaporate from the Earth's surface. These droplets are very small, almost invisible to the eye, such small droplets are called water vapor.

Water evaporates from the leaves of trees, from the surface of the earth and even from the surface of our body. Most water, of course, evaporates in the form of steam from the water surface of rivers, lakes, seas and oceans.

Evaporation over water can be seen in the early morning when steam begins to form droplets directly above the water. You can also see such steam when the kettle is boiling.

Rising higher and higher, the steam enters the cold layers of the atmosphere and collects into water droplets and tiny pieces of ice. After all, the temperature at the top, where the clouds gather, is about zero degrees. The wind collects droplets into huge fancy clouds. You can see before the rain how white clouds gather into a cloud and darken before your eyes. This is because such a large amount of water collects in the sky that it does not allow sunlight to pass through.

It happens that droplets freeze due to low temperatures and, together with raindrops, fall to the ground. It's hailing.

The droplets in the cloud connect with each other, become heavier and begin to fall to the ground. So it starts to rain.

Why does it rain more often in autumn?

It rains in Russia in autumn even less often than in summer. According to weather forecasters greatest number precipitation falls in June. And in the fall because large quantity cloudy days It seems to us that autumn is rainy.

In winter, evaporating water vapor does not even have time to form droplets, but immediately turns into fluffy snowflakes. Yes, yes, snowflakes are formed from steam. And then instead of rain in winter it snows.

Now you know how water gets into the atmosphere and why it rains. Once on the soil in the form of rain or snow, the water goes into The groundwater, into the seas, oceans, rivers, lakes, and other bodies of water, and it all starts again and again. This a natural phenomenon called the water cycle in nature.

Without such a water cycle, our planet would turn into a lifeless desert.

You can even create a small water cycle at home. To do this, cover with a transparent lid and put on fire. You will see how the steam will rise and settle on the lid in the form of droplets. And the drops will fall down, only to rise up again, turning into steam. Such wonderful rain in a pan.

Or snow. It goes on and on, but the weather is bad, it spoils the mood. Meanwhile, this is an interesting natural phenomenon that would be useful for everyone to study, because, having become parents, people often hear such seemingly simple questions: "Why is it raining or is the sun shining?" It is not necessary for little ones to explain everything in detail, but a six or seven year old child is already quite capable of understanding a serious explanation. So it is better to know the answer to the question that a child may ask when reminded about an umbrella and bad weather.

Their school course chemistry, many people know that water can exist in several states of aggregation: solid, liquid and gaseous. Moreover, from liquid to gaseous state it passes almost constantly and the more intense the higher its temperature. If you leave a puddle of water on the table, after a while it will dry out and evaporate. In the same way, it evaporates from rivers, lakes, from plant leaves, soil - from any surfaces. It got there from the lakes that were fed by the rain that had passed before. So this one turns into

But in nature everything is balanced: both on the lid of a pan with boiling water and high in the troposphere, where the air temperature differs significantly from that observed near the ground, condensation forms, that is, drops of water. When they become very heavy, that is, a lot of them accumulate, form and then drops fall to the ground under the influence of gravity - it rains! The water collects in streams and rivulets, and eventually its remains can reach one of the oceans. Everything starts all over again. Of course, this process is described somewhat simplified, but without serious omissions.

This phenomenon is known as the water cycle or whirlpool in nature. However, the latter term is somewhat incorrect, since a whirlpool is usually called another phenomenon that has nothing to do with precipitation.

All this short story explains why it rains. Sometimes it snows instead, these drops of water freeze and become snowflakes - ice crystals. Hail - even more interesting phenomenon, it occurs when condensation, that is, water droplets collide with very cold air, then some of them may freeze, but not become snowflakes, but turn into hailstones. Large

hail can form if there is strong air in the cloud, which prevents precipitation from falling quite for a long time. When does this cold cloud collide with more warm air, a thunderstorm begins, hail falls. This phenomenon, however, should not be confused with snow pellets or rain and snow - they are significantly different.

After rain, especially if the weather is warm, even hot, you can see a rainbow. When the rain is mushroom, that is, the sun is not hidden behind the clouds, it can be seen directly during the rain. It appears when the sun shines through small droplets of evaporating or falling water. Children really like this beautiful natural phenomenon, so sometimes the question: “Why is it raining?” - you can even answer: “So that people can see the rainbow.”