How rain, snow, sleet, and hail form, and the atmospheric conditions that determine each type, one concept per card.
30 cards · basic cards · AI-written, checked twice. Edit anything.
- What is precipitation?
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Water falling from clouds to Earth's surface.- What is condensation?
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The process where water vapor cools and becomes liquid water.- What role does water vapor play in precipitation formation?
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It is the invisible water gas that rises, cools, and condenses into cloud droplets.- How do clouds form?
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Water vapor rises and cools, then condenses around tiny particles in the air.- What is the freezing level?
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The altitude where temperature reaches 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius).- How does temperature determine the type of precipitation?
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Different types form in different temperature layers of the atmosphere as water falls.- What is an updraft?
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A rising column of warm air carrying moisture upward through the atmosphere.- What is a downdraft?
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A descending column of cool or cold air moving downward through the atmosphere.- Define rain.
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Liquid water droplets falling from clouds.- What atmospheric conditions produce rain?
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Warm air throughout the cloud and below, with water droplets large enough to fall.- Define snow.
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Ice crystals falling from clouds.- How do snowflakes form?
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Water vapor freezes directly into ice crystals (deposition) in sub-freezing clouds.- Define sleet.
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Small, translucent pellets of ice that bounce when they land.- How does sleet form?
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Rain falls through a freezing air layer and turns into ice pellets before reaching the ground.- Define hail.
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Balls or chunks of ice much larger than sleet, formed by multiple freeze-thaw cycles.
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