The Water Cycle

It's raining! Have you ever wondered where the rain comes from? or how the clouds are formed? This is what the water cycle is all about Let's explore When the sun heats up the rivers and oceans Water becomes water vapour An it rises up in the air This process is called evaporation This is the first step of the water cycle. You too can see water vapour at home just tell your mummy to heat some water As the water gets heated you'll be able to see the water vapour rising up in the air When the water vapour reaches up in the sky it turns into tiny drops of the water These water droplets along with various gases and dust particles come together to form clouds. This is known as condensation. Now, hold a cold lid over the vessel in which you heated water. When you open the lid after sometime, you'll be able to see water droplets on the lid. That's exactly what condensation is! When the clouds becomes too heavy and it cannot hold any more water inside, it bursts open to give out rain, hail or snow. This is known as precipitation. As it rains, water gets collected in oceans, lakes and rivers. It even seeps through the soil and becomes ground water. Thus water cycle is a continuous process of evaporation, condensation and precipitation. Did you know that even plants sweat? That's called transpiration. That's why it rains more in places with more trees, like hill stations and forests. Sometimes snow directly turns into water vapour without melting into water. That's called sublimation. This happens a lot in cold countries. Oh, I need to run now. It's raining again