What is precipitation?
Precipitation is condensed moisture that falls to the ground as rain, sleet, snow, hail, or freezing rain.
Why does it precipitate?
Precipitation is part of the Hydrological Cycle, also known as the Water Cycle. Precipitation falls because in order for the Earth to maintain its water, the water must fall back to the ground. The water that has evaporated from the ground accumulates into clouds. As soon as the clouds hold too much water vapor for them to handle, the clouds release the water in forms of different kinds of precipitation.
This is a picture of a rain shower in Texas. Falling rain is a kind of precipitation.
The five different kinds of precipitation presented in this tutorial are rain and hail, freezing rain, sleet, and snow. This diagram shows how most of these forms are made while falling from the clouds to the ground.