Precipitation is part of the water cycle. Precipitation is when the liquid water falls to the ground. This happens when a cloud becomes heavy and all the water will fall to the ground. There are three different types of precipitation. Rain, snow, sleet, and hail. We are going to talk about each of them! Rain is when droplets of water collect in a cloud and fall to the ground. Rain is one of the most common types of precipitation. Rain is how we get our drinking water, groundwater, and bodies of water. It is very important for life. Rain can fall in sheets or drop by drop. Snow is different from frozen rain. Snow is made up of tiny ice crystals that are so small that they feel like powder. When snow falls to Earth, the ice crystals expand and build up on the surface of the ice particle. That creates snowflakes! Sleet is when ice and rain are mixed together. Sleet is basically frozen rain. Sleet can be very damaging, especially to power lines. when this frozen rain falls on objects, it hardens around it! Hail is when ice crystals get bigger and bigger as they make their way to Earth. Hail is large balls of ice falling to the ground. Hail can break windo9ews and can be very damaging. The largest hailstone was as big as a basketball!!
