ENVIRSC 1A03 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Freezing Rain, Terminal Velocity, Nitrogen Dioxide

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Environmental Science
• Course: ENVIRSC 1A03
• Professor: Luc Bernier

Document Summary

Any form of water that falls from a cloud and reaches the ground, which can be liquid or solid. Driven by the same forces that make clouds. Can start quickly like from convective heating and dissipation. Most precipitation is formed through accretion (build up) and most of the time it begins as ice. Warm clouds have an overall temperature profile greater than zero degrees. Formation begins when saturated air rises rapidly , as it rises it cools which forces condensation and forms droplettes of water in the cloud. As more condensation is added the drops grow until they reach a diameter of. The droplets are carried aloft the rising cloud and they collide in colus with each other forming drops which are 1000-5000micrometers which is the size of rain drops. The weight increases and overcomes the upward force and then it falls down, as it falls it becomes less stable and breaks.