By Erin Banks

Introduction My question was where does rain come from and what causes it. Listed below arethe three main things that cause rain.

-Clouds

-Water cycle(Hydrolic cycle)

-State Change-State change

It Rains….When: When clouds over load with cloud droplets. The droplets

come together and form rain drops. Cloud droplets are made from air vapor.

Why: The water cycle causes the clouds to overfill with droplets and the rain falls to the ocean and the cycle repeats.

Where: Rain falls from the clouds and back into the ocean or other bodies of water and the water cycle repeats.

What: Rain is air vapor that forms clouds and cloud droplets those form rain drops.

Water Cycle State Change The water cycle aka the hydrolic cycle explains how water runs on

earth. Ocean and sea water particles are sucked up by the sun (evaporation) the evaporated particles (air vapor) form clouds. The clouds fill with droplets that come together and from rain. The rain (condensation) falls back to the ocean or other bodies of water and the cycle is repeated.

CCN’s and Cloud Coloring CCN’s: means cloud condensation nuclei. CCN’s appear in

tiny solid or liquid particles. With out these particles water vapor would freeze and it would rain more often than it snows. Human pollution and car exhaust form CCN’s and cause clouds.

Cloud Coloring: Clouds will appear gray when they block sunlight the thicker a cloud is the more sun it blocks and the darker it looks. A cloud looks darker when it is surrounded by bright sky and looks lighter when it is surrounded by dark sky.

Citations www.weatherwizkids.com 1-26-60www.USAToday.com 1-26-09www.wekipeda.com 2-4-09