![]() The map below shows average annual precipitation, in millimeters and inches, for the world. Contrast this excessive precipitation to Arica, Chile, where no rain fell for 14 years, and in Bagdad, California, where precipitation was absent for 767 consecutive days from October 1912 to November 1914. The world's record for average-annual rainfall belongs to Mawsynram in Meghalaya State, India, where it averages about 467.4 inches (1,187.2 cm) per year. But, the rain amount that Georgia gets in one month is often more than Las Vegas, Nevada observes all year. Summer thunderstorms may deliver an inch or more of rain on one suburb while leaving another area dry a few miles away. Here in Georgia, USA, it rains fairly evenly all during the year, around 40-50 inches (102-127 centimeters (cm)) per year. Precipitation does not fall in the same amounts throughout the world, in a country, or even in a city. Precipitation rates vary geographically and over time The parachute doesn't last long, though, and the large drop breaks up into smaller drops. At this size, the indentation in the bottom greatly expands forming something like a parachute. Raindrops don't stop growing at 3 millimeters, though, and when they reach about 4-5 mm, things really fall apart. The bottom of the drop starts to flatten out until at about 2-3 mm in diameter the bottom is quite flat with an indention in the middle - much like a hamburger bun. As droplets collide and grow in size, the bottom of the drop begins to be affected by the resistance of the air it is falling through. One inch of rain falling on just a single acre results in 27,154 gallons of water on the landscape. If you'd like to know how much water falls during a storm, use our Interactive Rainfall Calculator ( English units or Metric units) to find out - you just enter an area size and rainfall amount and see how many gallons of water reach the ground.Īs Alistair Frasier explains on his web page, Bad Rain, small raindrops, those with a radius of less than 1 millimeter (mm), are spherical, like a round ball. You might be surprised at the number of gallons of water that fall from the sky in even a small but intense storm. These crystals may fall as snow, or melt and fall as rain. A more efficient mechanism (known as the Bergeron-Findeisen process) for producing a precipitation-sized drop is through a process which leads to the rapid growth of ice crystals at the expense of the water vapor present in a cloud. This is not a trivial task since millions of cloud droplets are required to produce a single raindrop. If enough collisions occur to produce a droplet with a fall velocity which exceeds the cloud updraft speed, then it will fall out of the cloud as precipitation. Water droplets may grow as a result of additional condensation of water vapor when the particles collide. Most of the condensed water in clouds does not fall as precipitation because their fall speed is not large enough to overcome updrafts which support the clouds.įor precipitation to happen, first tiny water droplets must condense on even tinier dust, salt, or smoke particles, which act as a nucleus. If you look closely at a cloud you can see some parts disappearing (evaporating) while other parts are growing (condensation). Water is continually evaporating and condensing in the sky. These droplets are way too small to fall as precipitation, but they are large enough to form visible clouds. The clouds floating overhead contain water vapor and cloud droplets, which are small drops of condensed water. A localized heavy summer rainstorm in Colorado, USA.
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