Precipitation, in
meteorology, is any type of
water that falls from the sky as
weather. This includes
snow,
rain,
sleet,
freezing rain and
hail. Precipitation is a major part of the
water cycle[?], and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the planet. Precipitation is generated in
clouds, which reach a point of saturation; at this point larger and larger droplets (or pieces of
ice) form, which then fall to the earth under
gravity. It is possible to 'seed' clouds to induce precipitation by releasing a fine dust or appropriate chemical (commonly
silver nitrate) into a cloud, encouraging droplets to form, and increasing the probability of precipitation.
In chemistry, precipitation is the condensation of a solid from a solution. This occurs when the solution is saturated, whereupon the solid forms, and usually sinks to the bottom of the solution.
See also umbrella.
All Wikipedia text
is available under the
terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
