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Table of Contents

Pages 4-5                                               Introduction

Pages 6-7                                                  Snow

Pages 8-9                                                  Rain

Pages 10-11                                               Sleet

Pages 12-13                                               Hail

Pages 14-15                                             Conclusion

Pages 15-16                                             Glossary 

Introduction

Precipitation is any form of water that 

falls to Earth's surface from the 

atmosphere. There are 4 main forms of 

precipitation: snow, rain, sleet, and hail. 

Precipitation occurs when air from the 

ocean rises, cools to its dew point and 

then condenses. When condensation 

occurs, clouds form, and when those clouds 

get heavy enough, precipitation falls out to 

the ground.  

Introduction

Snow

Temperatures in the top layers of clouds are usually 

very cold; below freezing. Ice crystals along with 

droplets are in these clouds. Snow forms when these 

ice crystals collide. When parts of these droplets begin 

to evaporate, the rest of it becomes deposited on the 

ice crystals. They begin to get heavy and eventually 

fall. As they fall, they capture smaller ice crystals and 

water droplets, which helps it increase in size. As they 

latch onto other ice crystals, snowflakes form. Snow is 

brought by nimbostratus clouds.

Snow

    Vocab

Nimbostratus

Clouds

Evaporate

Rain

Rain is one of the most common types of 

precipitation. In clouds, tiny droplets are formed 

from condensation, and they get bigger and 

bigger when they too combine with other droplets. 

Droplets can have a wide variety of sizes based on 

how long they are in that cloud, and some even 

shrink through evaporation. As these raindrops 

fall, the bigger ones fall faster and combine with 

the smaller ones (think of watching rain on your 

window), while other droplets just bounce off the 

bigger ones. Rain is also brought by nimbostratus 

clouds.

Rain

   Vocab

Condensation

Evaporation

Nimbostratus 

Clouds

Sleet

Sleet is clear ice particles that form 

when raindrops freeze before they can 

reach the ground. This happens when 

rain falls into a layer of cold air in the 

atmosphere, and the raindrops become 

supercooled, and if they freeze, then 

they hit the ground as sleet. 

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