Why is it so rainy. Why is it raining. Where on Earth does it rain more often?

After the director of one of the American radio stations got wet to the skin, falling under the autumn rain, the program "Weather Forecast" appeared on the air, which had not previously existed. The information turned out to be relevant, because it will never be superfluous to find out whether it is worth taking an umbrella today and whether you need to leave the house, since, for example, in Portugal, rain and wind are a good reason not to show up for work.

Rain is one of the types of precipitation that falls 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 when small spherical water particles coalesce 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 underside 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 sink down, continuing to increase. This process continues until the water particles gain the required mass, enabling them to overcome air resistance and shed raindrops on the ground.

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

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

Interestingly, the larger the raindrops, the stronger the rain, but usually it passes rather quickly. The speed of such precipitation can be from 9 to 30 m/s (this is usually typical for summer or spring rain). But if the raindrops turn out to be small, then such precipitation can last for several days or 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 the amount of precipitation in nature is the fixation of the intensity of rain - the volume of raindrops falling in a certain time.

Rainfall depth is usually measured in millimeters: one millimeter of water is equal to one kilogram of raindrops per square meter (precipitation rate typically ranges from 1.25 mm/h to 100 mm/h). Given the amount of precipitation that falls over a certain period of time, light, moderate and heavy rain are distinguished.

Heavy rainfall

At a speed of 2.5 mm/h, light rain falls regardless of the time of the year at positive temperatures in temperate and high latitudes from dark altostratus, stratonimbus and cumulonimbus clouds. Heavy precipitation lasts from several hours to several weeks and covers a vast territory. If precipitation of this type is prolonged, then they quite often harm nature: the humidity in the atmosphere increases greatly, and plants begin to rot due to oversaturation with moisture.

Drizzling precipitation

Moderate rains come at a speed 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 amount is minimal, and therefore the rain does not have a negative impact on nature.


heavy rainfall

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

It should be noted that a thunderstorm often accompanies heavy rain, so in such weather it is better to take shelter in order to avoid accidents. Interestingly, the occurrence of a thunderstorm is directly related to the Sun - in the middle latitudes, such a natural phenomenon can be observed in the afternoon and very rarely before dawn.


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

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

rainy season

There are areas on Earth where the most precipitation falls. 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 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 rainy belt does not stand still and gradually moves after the zenith of the Sun from the northern to the southern tropic and back).

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

Interestingly, 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 equatorial and tropical countries during this period. Storms and hurricanes also occur quite often, only in the Philippines in one rainy season about thirty hurricanes and storms fly over the country.

Precipitation in temperate latitudes

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

  • Spring rain is typical for the whole territory of Europe and during the first two months the rains constantly alternate with the Sun. Showers often begin in the last days of spring;
  • In Germany, warm rain can be observed throughout the summer. In Sweden, Denmark, the Netherlands, on the territory of Central and Eastern Europe, August is considered one of the most rainy months;
  • Autumn cold rain is observed in Norway, France, Italy and the Balkans in October and November, when warm weather is 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 not uncommon for the northern territories, for example, it often falls in Scotland and the Faroe Islands.

rain and nature

The role of precipitation in the life of nature can hardly be overestimated, since they both give life and take it away. Rain and wind, forming squalls, thunderstorms, hurricanes can destroy houses, break crops, nullify all human 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 revived. For example, mushroom rain is eagerly awaited by all mushroom pickers. This is a drizzling warm rain that falls from clouds that are low above the earth's surface during the growth of mushrooms. Interestingly, unlike other precipitation, mushroom rain is short-lived, raindrops wet the soil well, and all mushrooms in the soil begin to grow extremely well.

I asked my mom this question when I was 5 years old. We then rested on a forest lake. The weather was wonderful and I didn't get out of the water. But, one day, the weather deteriorated sharply - it started to rain. It poured straight from the clear sky. I had to get out of the water. I was very upset then and asked my mother: “Why did it rain?”. She answered my childish question 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. And in autumn, on the contrary, the rain splashes like cologne from a spray bottle. Why? Because the autumn air is already cold and the ice floes, forming at a high altitude, then, falling down, melt more slowly. And they merge with each other more lazily. So it turns out cold, drizzling, "dank" rain. Often before the rain you can see how the white clouds gather into one big dark cloud. It is dark because it contains such a large amount of moisture that it does not let in sunlight. Sometimes, individual drops freeze due to low temperatures. They fall down with the raindrops - goes hail.


Causes of rain

The science that studies different types of precipitation is called meteorology. She singled out 4 main reasons to make rain:

  • 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 air masses. This is called an "atmospheric front". The greater the difference in their temperatures, the stronger 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 pot of water, put it on the fire and waited. 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 vapor upwards. And so it happened again and again. It was raining in the pot.

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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. Someone who, but I know everything about the rains. And about how cold drops gently stroke your face, and about why they roll down on us from the sky at all - that is, why is it raining at all.


What is rain and where does it come from

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

  • Rivers.
  • Seas.
  • Oceans.
  • Lakes.

And many other reservoirs of different sizes.


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


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

Why is it cloudy when it rains

You must have noticed: almost always, when it rains, the sky is darkening and the sun is hiding. In fact, it is simply blocked by clouds - large and dark. The ones that store future raindrops.

There are so many of them that the rays of the sun cannot penetrate through such a barrier. That is why clouds appear so dark to us – we call them clouds. For the same reason and the weather becomes cloudy.


We also have a little rain

The most interesting thing is that the rain carries a part of each of us. Every animal, plant and even human.

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

In animals and humans, thermoregulation occurs with the help of sweat - small droplets of liquid protrude through the pores to the surface of the skin - and under the influence of the Sun they also evaporate eventually returning to earth as 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 summer they go even more often! And the rainiest month on average in Russia is June.

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


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For me rain - boats in the puddles, rubber boots and colorful rainbow. Without rain unthinkable life on our planet. The rain brings sedation, of course, if you don't have to get 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 particles are so microscopic that are in a state free float in the air. Happening in the clouds circulation of cold and warm streams air, which carry moisture particles with them. Those particles, what bigger and are in the middle layers of the cloud, are moving updraft in upper layer. There temperature below, and cooled droplets go down, attracting more small. This movement continues until drops not become heavier so much that they can no longer be raised, and then, under the influence of their own masses, drops rush down, turning into rain.


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


What are the rains

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

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

Using a figurative meaning, one can also mention such a phenomenon as meteor Rain- combustion of several, and sometimes more than a hundred meteorite bodies at the same time.


Precipitation measurement

Rain 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 rainfall. AT Moscow rainfall throughout the year reaches 670 mm., and in South America, in a desert Atacama, the average is equal to 0.1 mm. The rainiest place on earth is Kauai included in the group Hawaiian Islands. Here the level reaches 11750 mm. It's hard to believe, but in the year there 350 days of heavy rains.


How do clouds disperse

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

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Questions like this begin to worry the child at an early age. I remember how, being small and getting wet in the rain, I asked my grandmother "what is it?" and "where does water come from in the sky?", and she tried to explain all this to me on her fingers. Already at school, I received a more detailed answer to my question from teachers. Now I'm trying to be a teacher. So, let's talk about what rain is and where it comes from.


The water cycle in nature

Just as a person sweats profusely on a hot day, so As the earth warms, moisture evaporates. Rising up and gradually cooling the water vapor condenses into clouds, first in them small droplets are collected and held in the atmosphere by air resistance, but the further those drops become heavier and heavier. Having reached a certain critical mass, they can't be held in the cloud and fall to the ground as precipitation. Depending on environmental conditions, several types of precipitation can form:

  • Rain.
  • Snow. At negative temperatures, water vapor rising up can bypass the liquid stage and immediately turn into solid snowflakes, which, falling lower, gradually melt and take the form of snow we are used to.
  • Grad. When evaporated moisture rises too high, into the upper atmosphere, at sub-zero temperatures, it can crystallize. Crystals of frozen water have a lot of weight and it is quite difficult for them to stay in the cloud. In this case, we see the fall of "hard 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 to establish new rubric in which they will tell about the possibility of rain several times a day.
  • hot Botswana and South Africa's national currency is called "rain".
  • Approximately one person in a million is allergic to rain. When hit under water, a person turns red and becomes covered with spots, if timely assistance is not provided, he may even die.
  • in 1986, hail fell from the sky from the weight of one hailstone more than a kilogram, then 92 people died from this phenomenon.

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At school, they briefly explained to us why it rains. So fluently that the weak brain of the second graders could not master such a quick, short and at the same time clever explanation. From that explanation, I only remember that this is part of " water cycle". Then the whole class of us (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 will try to retell everything that I remember from that moment, well, I will season it with current knowledge, which 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 / water bodies 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 are evaporations from living objects. People sweat, just excess water evaporate and are taken out of since and stomata plants too evaporate excess water. All this water goes to rain.


rain gear

Let's look at a few mechanisms. First:

  1. In the sky due to the cold temperature of the steam condenses into light droplets, which are still not heavy enough to fall.
  2. Drops are moving in the sky chaotically.
  3. Sometimes they face and merge into larger.
  4. Larger droplets much heavier than the original ones and therefore they are under the influence of gravity fall down.
  1. Low temperature in stock high humidity makes condense steam in more large droplets.
  2. These droplets too heavy to soar in the clouds.
  3. Drops under the influence of attraction fall down and rain down on the ground.

As can be easily seen, in this case there is no chaotic motion of drops.

Third mechanism:

meet in the sky warm air masses and cold air masses. Cold air cools warm and further two ways. According to the first the air is not very cold and he starts condense and are formed raindrops that fall down. The second way - the air cools so much that the drops freeze and it snows.


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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 I say about the ancients, if I myself thought so in childhood. When I grew up, I learned more about the world around me, and the rain from an unusual miracle for me became just a natural phenomenon.


What did the ancient Slavs say about rain?

Myths and legends were formed by our ancestors for centuries. Plots were most often based on phenomena that were considered mystical. Today, hardly anyone will agree that rain is a message from higher powers. The rain was both a punishment and a 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 sent punishment.


Modern rain science

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

  • ocean;
  • seas;
  • rivers;
  • puddles.

Water begins to evaporate and rise gradually upwards, forming those same clouds. It is difficult to think that such a miracle can be so simply explained.

What is acid rain

Acid rain is an extremely unpleasant thing and it is best never to encounter such a phenomenon. Such rain is any precipitation that has arisen as a result of air pollution with nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides and other acidic oxides. How does acid rain appear? 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, at least once a year and at least a couple of minutes there will be a little rain. But there is the wettest place on the planet: the village of Mosinram in India. It does not rain there every day without stopping, but the annual rainfall makes people recognize that in this area there will be no need to suffer from water shortages.

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We have all had the opportunity to watch rain at least once in our lives. Whether it is small, slightly dripping, or torrential, generously watering nature. Let's try to explain why it rains? Rain is the name given to precipitation that falls from clouds in the form of water droplets.


Rain comes in different forms

Rain can be barely noticeable, but it can be, on the contrary, torrential, frightening. Kinds:

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

More than once I watched how lightly dripping raindrops smoothly turned into a light rain, which eventually ended in a heavy downpour, and sometimes even hail. We all know from school that rain drops have a diameter up to 0.5 millimeters. If they are smaller in diameter, then such precipitation is called drizzle rather than rain.


So why does it rain?

For it to rain, you need a cloud of ice crystals or tiny drops of water, well, or both. The heaviest rains come precisely when a mixture of crystals is present in the cloud ice and drops water.


At first, the water droplets in the cloud resemble water dust. Such droplets-dust particles 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 all cloud. And since the air temperature drops every 100 meters, the droplets gradually turn into the smallest pieces of ice. The most interesting is just beginning... Ice floes and droplets collide with each other, merge or freeze, become heavier and finally rush to the ground. On the way, the ice floes melt and fall to the ground already in the form of drops. It happens that in cloudsNoice floes, then a small one falls to the ground, like from a sieve, drizzling rain.


Shower

Downpour we used to call rain of such force when it falls in a minute more than one millimeterprecipitation. But this indicator is even higher.

"Blind Rains"

When the sun is shining and not a cloud is visible, a haze appears overhead. On the ground spank loudly large drops. Water vapor does not have time to gather into a cloud, as a stream of cold air rushed over 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!

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

Meanwhile, the evaporation of water from the surface of the soil and water bodies continues. The wind knocks together small flocks of fog. A cloud forms. Tiny droplets of water vapor move randomly, 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 the updrafts of air cannot hold them. One raindrop is obtained by merging with a million other cloud droplets. This is a very lengthy process.

Rain clouds form in the troposphere, the lowest layer of the atmosphere. The troposphere is heating up, so the air temperature near 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 the summer heat, at an altitude of 8-9 km above the Earth's surface, downright arctic cold reigns, and temperatures of -30 ° C are not uncommon here.

Processes inside the cloud

Water vapor, rising up along with air currents, gradually cools down, and then freezes, turning into tiny ice crystals. Thus, in the upper part of the rain cloud there are ice crystals, and in the lower part there are water droplets.

Water vapor condenses inside the cloud. As you know, this process is possible only in the presence of any surface. Water vapor settles on water droplets, all kinds of dust particles and motes raised up by ascending air currents, as well as on ice crystals. The size and weight of the crystals rapidly increases. They can no longer stay in the air and break down.

When passing through the thickness of the cloud, the ice crystals become even larger and more weighty as the condensation continues. If the temperature is above zero at the lower boundary of the cloud, the ice floes melt and fall to the ground in the form of rain; if it is below zero, hail occurs.

And then everything starts all over again. Numerous rain streams form that replenish terrestrial reservoirs. Some of the precipitated moisture seeps through the soil and enters underground water bodies. And part of the water evaporates, and a cloud forms above the earth.

We follow the weather forecast to see if it's going to rain, whether to take an umbrella with us. Many people like to walk in the rain, some sleep soundly under its noise, others, on the contrary, cannot stand the slush and dampness that it brings. We have observed this phenomenon many times. So why is it raining?

cloud formation

Rain is droplets of water falling from clouds floating across the sky. They come in a variety of forms: 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. When the earth is heated by the sun's rays, part of the moisture evaporates and rises into the air in the form of steam. Water vapor rises from all reservoirs, rivers, lakes, seas, each blade of grass evaporates water, and a person exhales vapors. The higher the air temperature, as well as the humidity, the greater the amount of vapor formed and condensed into the smallest droplets of water or ice crystals (if the air is cold). This is how clouds form. By understanding the mechanism of rain formation, one can control such a great process as

Why doesn't it rain from all the clouds?

It doesn't rain from every cloud. For it to rain, the droplets must be quite large. In a cloud, their size gradually increases, water vapor is deposited on small droplets of water in the air, and they also merge with each other as they move. A cloud consisting of only water turns into a rain cloud more slowly, but mixed clouds become rain clouds faster. Their lower part is made of water, and the upper part is made of ice crystals. That's why it rains or it rains. It is these mixed clouds that spill onto the earth in a continuous shower stream.

What is rain like?

It is customary to divide precipitation into 3 types: downpours, drizzling and overcast rains. Many give them more detailed definitions: protracted, 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.

With a drizzle, dampness is felt in the air, but it is almost impossible to get wet. It is almost imperceptible, as the water droplets are very small and frequent. They do not form characteristic circles in puddles. With such rain, nebula, dampness increase, visibility worsens.

Why does it rain with hail or rain?

Storm clouds form when warm air masses meet cold air. Extreme heat can also be the cause. Wet soil is very overheated, vapors form massive, water-heavy clouds. A downpour starts suddenly and ends just as suddenly; it usually does not last long, but it can be very strong. Tropical showers, on the contrary, are very long. Such rains often cause floods. Rain with hail can begin only in hot weather, when there is a lot of moisture in the air. Ice crystals form in cumulonimbus clouds, when they can no longer be held in suspension due to their size, they fall to the ground in the form of hail. Large hail breaks even the roofs of houses and can injure people.

Why is it raining "mushroom"?

"Blind" or "mushroom" rain comes in summer, in sunny weather. After it, a rainbow almost always appears. According to popular belief, after such a rain, mushrooms begin to grow, hence its name. This is usually a warm short rain, during which the sun shines.

We listen to the weather forecast every day to find out if it will rain today, and whether it is worth taking an umbrella with us to hide from the rain and not get wet. Many of us like to walk in the rain, fall asleep to the sound of rain, while others, on the contrary, try to hide at home at the first drops of rain, they cannot stand the slush and dampness that rains bring.

The first spring rains awaken nature, fill the earth with life-giving moisture, and dissolve the dirty remains of snow. On hot summer days, rains freshen the air, wash dust off the leaves of trees.

Rain is atmospheric precipitation that falls from clouds that float across our sky. Clouds can have the most diverse forms, they look like huge pieces of cotton wool or giant waves, sometimes they resemble bird feathers. Sometimes the sky is covered with a huge black cloud or a solid gray veil.

How clouds are formed

Clouds form in the sky and are made up of water droplets and ice crystals. How do water droplets and ice crystals get into clouds? By heating the surface of the earth, the sun's rays evaporate a large amount of moisture, which rises into the air in the form of water vapor.

Also, water vapor rises from the surfaces of reservoirs: rivers, seas, lakes. All plants of the Earth, from the smallest blade of grass to a huge tree, evaporate water, and animals and humans exhale water vapor.

The higher the temperature and humidity of the air, the more water vapor is formed, which condense and turn into tiny droplets of water. From these small droplets of water, as well as from ice crystals, if the air is cold, clouds form.

Not every cloud makes it rain. In order for the cloud to rain, the water droplets must become larger. In clouds, the size of the droplets gradually increase - water vapor is deposited on small droplets from the air and the droplets become larger, the same droplets move in the cloud in all directions, collide with each other, merge and increase.

If the cloud consists only of water droplets, then the process of formation of a rain cloud is very slow. Mixed clouds, the upper part of which consists of ice crystals, and the lower part of water droplets, form rain clouds faster, because, falling into the lower layers of the atmosphere, where the temperature is above zero, the ice crystals evaporate and turn into large drops of water. Mixed clouds fall to the ground in the form of heavy rains and even showers. Cumulonimbus, stratocumulus, stratocumulus, stratus and altostratus clouds refer to rain clouds.

What are the rains

Rain is water droplets that are very small less than 0.5 mm and larger, reaching a size of 6-7 mm. Rain is atmospheric precipitation that falls from spring to autumn. On rare occasions, it can also rain in winter. Scientists divide precipitation into three types: it is drizzling, overflowing and torrential rains.

The rest of the people give rains a wide variety of definitions - warm and cold, long-awaited and boring, short-term and protracted.

It often rains with hail, with snow, with a thunderstorm. Rain can be blind or mushroom, and even icy, but also radioactive and acidic, exotic and even stellar.

Drizzling rain, drizzle

When it is drizzling, it is impossible to get wet under such rain, but dampness hanging in the air is felt. Drizzling rain - rain with small and frequent droplets, it is almost invisible, small droplets, falling on the surface of the puddle, do not form circles. Drizzling rains reduce visibility and make the day foggy.

Drizzle is very small drops no more than 0.5 mm, which, as it were, hang in the air, since they have a very low falling speed, drizzle also falls during fog. With drizzle, drops are not visible, and the air itself seems damp, wet.

Heavy rain, rain with thunder and hail

Storm clouds are formed when cold air meets warm air masses, as well as the cause of heavy rains is intense heat, moist soil warms up very much, and the moisture that evaporates from the earth's surface forms heavy clouds overloaded with water. Many of us have observed these evaporations, the damp earth seems to be smoking.

Heavy rains begin suddenly, and just as suddenly end. They usually do not last long, but can be very strong.

Thunderstorm rains are always torrential, they also appear suddenly, accompanied by strong winds, thunder and lightning, they can fall on a certain part of the city, and do a lot of trouble.

These are uprooted and fallen trees, overturned billboards, broken wires, demolished roofs, flooded streets and house entrances, and the downpour bypassed other areas of the city, not a single drop of rain fell there.

Lightning that accompanies thunderstorms, falling into residential buildings, causes fires, breaks trees, sometimes lightning hits animals and people.

Tropical showers continue for hours, and a huge mass of water pours onto the ground. Often heavy rains cause floods, rivers overflowing with water, water flows wash away dams and dams, flood settlements, destroy houses, roads, bridges, mudflows come down from the mountains, landslides occur. People often become victims of floods.

Rains with hail occur only in hot weather, when the air is filled with a lot of moisture. Hailstones form in cumulonimbus clouds, and when they reach large sizes and cannot stay in suspension, they fall to the ground in the form of hail. The hail has various sizes from a small pea to the size of a chicken egg.

Large hail can pierce the roofs of houses, break glass, and even kill animals and people. Yes, and small hail brings great damage to agriculture, destroys crops in vegetable gardens and fields, damages orchards.

Blind or mushroom rain

Blind rain or mushroom rain occurs in summer, during such rain the sun shines in the sky, and such rain is also called solar rain, after a sunny rain a rainbow necessarily appears.

To fall under such a rain, and even seeing a rainbow, is considered a good omen. Also, according to folk signs, mushrooms begin to grow after the rain - hence the name - mushroom rain. This is a warm and short rain.

Heavy or prolonged rains

Heavy rain can last from several hours to several days. During prolonged rains, the entire sky is covered with clouds, the sun does not peep through the clouds, the day becomes dark, gloomy. Long rains, especially in autumn, are accompanied by a decrease in air temperature. These are cold rains, tedious, annoying, turning all the colors of the world around into dull, gray colors.

freezing rain

Freezing rain occurs when the air at the surface of the earth has a lower temperature - (from 0 degrees to - minus 10 degrees) than in the upper atmosphere. Raindrops, falling into the cold air, are covered with an ice crust, inside the crust the water remains in a liquid state.

Falling to the ground, such ice balls break and the water, flowing out, instantly freezes. Getting on tree branches, wires, surrounding objects, freezing rain gives objects and trees a fabulous unusual look, each branch is covered with an ice crust, and sidewalks and roads turn into an ice rink.

This natural phenomenon looks beautiful, but dangerous, as wires break under the weight of ice, branches break, pedestrians are injured.

Acid and radioactive rain

Acid rain is rain that contains acids and toxic substances released into the atmosphere from harmful industrial enterprises and automobile exhaust. Industrial production pollutes the air with harmful gases that rise up and fall into the clouds, combining with water droplets - form acid. And acid rain falls on the earth, bringing only harm to all life on Earth. Acid rain destroys crops, destroys fish in reservoirs.

Radioactive rains carry an even greater danger - the background radiation increases, which leads to genetic mutations and diseases of internal organs, to oncology and damage to the skin. The reason for the occurrence of radioactive rain are accidents at nuclear power plants, at enterprises that use radioactive substances in the production and testing of nuclear weapons.

exotic rains

Exotic rains are unusual rains, wonderful, mysterious. Rains, which, together with water, bring various objects to the surface of the earth: coins, grain, fruits, and even spiders, fish, jellyfish and frogs.

Sometimes raindrops are painted in different colors - blue, red. Why does it rain so much? Often on hot summer days, dust whirlwinds can be observed above the earth's surface. Rotating, this air column draws in various small debris - pieces of paper, wood chips, plastic bags, even plastic bottles and raises it all above the ground.

More powerful tornadoes are capable of lifting large, heavy objects into the air, and if such a tornado passes over the surface of reservoirs, then, together with water, it sucks in and lifts living creatures that live in water high into the air. The wind blowing in the upper layers of the atmosphere carries tornadoes and whirlwinds over long distances, and when the strength of the wind weakens, “gifts from heaven” fall to the ground along with rain, and sometimes without rain.

Why do colored rains come? The wind raises the pollen of plants high into the sky, and the pigment contained in the pollen paints the rain in different colors - blue, green, yellow. Also, a whirlwind can suck water from a swamp, in which there are large quantities of tiny microorganisms that give the water a brown, red color, or, passing over a desert, raise a lot of multi-colored dust into the air.

Star and meteor showers

Star rain is a starfall, or rather, these are meteoric bodies that fly into the atmosphere of our Earth and reach speeds of up to tens of kilometers per second, when rubbing against the air, they heat up and begin to glow, and then collapse. Such a phenomenon can be observed at a certain time, at night, it seems that the stars are falling. People often make wishes when they see shooting stars.

A meteor shower or rock shower is a rain that consists of many meteorites. When a large meteorite is destroyed, both large and small fragments fall to the ground. Large meteorites, hitting the surface of the Earth, explode and form meteorite craters. It is believed that about a thousand small meteorites fall on our planet every day.

Why bubbles form when it rains

Raindrops, falling into puddles, hit the water, splash out on top of the water surface, and the air that has fallen under the water film forms bubbles. Larger and more noticeable bubbles form when there is heavy rain with large drops or a downpour.

There is such a popular sign that if large bubbles form in the puddles, it means that the rain will end soon. The sun will shine brightly and the sky will turn blue-blue.