Explained in a child-friendly way: How does rain come about?
When it rains outside, it’s usually annoying for us adults: everything is wet, we need an umbrella and it’s usually cold too. For children, on the other hand, rain can be really fascinating – just think of the many puddles to jump into! But how does rain come about? The child-friendly explanation can be found here.
How is rain formed? Sooner or later you will definitely have to answer this question for your child. Because our little ones always want to know everything exactly – fortunately! That’s why we’re explaining here, in a child-friendly way, how the rain actually works.
How is rain formed?
As annoying as rain can be sometimes, it is extremely important. Without it, plants would not survive, for example, and you may have longed for refreshing rain after a long period of sunshine.
In fact, our sun plays the most important role in the formation of rain. Because when it shines, it warms the land, the air and, of course, the water. Whether in oceans, seas, lakes or in the smallest puddle: where water is heated by the sun, it turns into water vapor and rises up into the air – it evaporates.
How are rain clouds formed?
You can observe what happens to water when it is heated, for example when cooking. As soon as the cold water in the pot warms up, something that looks like white plumes rises to the top – water vapor.
The heated water thus rises towards the sky and slowly cools down again on this way. At some point a limit is reached where it gets too cold for the vapor and it turns into raindrops, the technical term is condensation. These droplets then collectively form clouds by attaching themselves to dust or dirt particles in the air.
Coming back to our example with the boiling water on the stovetop: If you cover the pot with a lid, you can see how little by little droplets form on the inside.
At some point, so many water droplets have gathered that they are almost too heavy for the sky (or for the lid of the pot) and the cloud can no longer hold them. They then fall down and become rain.
What is precipitation?
Sometimes rain is also referred to as precipitation. But it is important to know here that rain is precipitation, but conversely precipitation is not just rain.
Snow, hail, dew and frost also count as precipitation. You may be thinking now: But dew and frost form on the ground and don’t fall down from the sky? You are of course right about that, after all there are no dew or frost clouds and specifically the term is “separated precipitation”. But the formation works in the same way as with the other types of precipitation.
Grass or cars, for example, cool down overnight to the point that they become colder than the air around them. Then the water vapor that was still in the air around grass and cars during the day can no longer be held by the air. Small droplets form in the case of dew and small ice crystals in the case of frost.