Evaporation Evaporation- the process in which water particles change from a liquid to a gas The sun heats water found on the Earth’s surface. Some of this water turns to a gas and rises into the atmosphere. Think of a puddle outside. Does it stay there forever? Why not?
Evaporation During evaporation, water molecules heat up and turn to gas. Then they begin to rise.
Condensation Condensation- the process in which water particles change from a gas to a liquid The water vapor that rose during evaporation cools off and becomes a liquid again. Cause and effect: The water vapor gets cooler, so it turns back to liquid.
Condensation During condensation, all the water vapor that rose during evaporation cools off and becomes liquid again.
Clouds After condensation, there are lots of tiny water droplets in the air. These water droplets come together to form clouds. Cloud- a mass of tiny droplets of condensed water in the atmosphere Sequence: Clouds form AFTER condensation.
Water droplets in the air are packed together to make clouds. Sometimes they are packed really tight and sometimes they are spread far apart.
Precipitation Precipitation- water in the atmosphere that falls to Earth as rain, hail, sleet or snow When clouds get too heavy, the water that they are made of begin to fall. Type of precipitation depends on the temperature of the air.