Precipitation represents any form of water, liquid or solid, falling to the ground from the atmosphere. All forms of water or ice in the atmosphere are classified as hydrometeors, but only those that fall to the ground are classed as precipitation.
Types of precipitation
Liquid precipitation is subdivided into two categories: drizzle and rain. The major difference between drizzle drops and raindrops is one of size. Water drops with diameters less than 0.5 mm are regarded as drizzle. Drops of greater size are considered to be raindrops.
Drizzle usually falls from stratus clouds or fog. The droplets are fairly uniform in size and quite numerous, but because of their smallness they produce only small quantities of rainfall. On the other hand, raindrop sizes may range from 0.5 to greater than 5 mm in diameter. They most often fall from nimbostratus and cumulonimbus clouds.
Frozen precipitation comes in a variety of types: ice crystals, snow, snow grains, snow pellets, ice pellets and hail....
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Battan, L.J. (1998). Precipitation . In: Encyclopedia of Hydrology and Lakes. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Dordrecht . https://doi.org/10.1007/1-4020-4497-6_174
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