Types and forms of precipitation

Published on 31 Jan 2025

Precipitation is any form of water—liquid or solid—that falls from the atmosphere and reaches the Earth's surface.

• Rain: Liquid water droplets.it occurs when air is warm and moist, and when dew point is greater than freezing point. It’s of following types:

• Convectional rainfall: Occurs during summer and is triggered by sunlight. It’s a feature of low latitudes with concentrated rainfall for a short duration.

• Orographic rainfall: Formed due to relief feature resulting in rainfall on the windward side and dry conditions on leeward side.

• Frontal: Results from the lifting of warm, moist air over a cooler air mass at a frontal boundary, causing condensation and rainfall.

• Monsoon rainfall: Precipitation is characterized by seasonal reversal of winds which carry oceanic moisture with them and cause extensive rainfall in south and Southeast Asia.

• Snow: Precipitation in the form of ice crystals and flakes. Occurs when dew point is less than freezing point. It’s a feature of higher latitudes and higher altitudes of lower latitudes.

• Sleet: These are small frozen raindrops. Raindrops freeze into ice pellets before reaching the ground, often due to a layer of freezing air.

• Hailstone: Precipitation in the form of round irregular pellets of ice. These are associated with severe thunderstorms, when updrafts carry raindrops into super cooled regions, causing them to freeze and accumulate layers.

• Drizzle: Precipitation with fine droplets of water and are often associated with low-lying clouds or mist.

• Virga: Rain or snow that evaporates before reaching the ground. Common in dry or arid regions where lower atmospheric layers are dry.

Mist: Evaporation occurs before reaching the ground leading to foggy weather.

Tags:
Geography

Keywords:
Types and forms of precipitation precipitation rain snow sleet hailstone deizzle virga mist

Syllabus:
General Studies Paper 1

Topics:
Physical Geography