The Water CycleBy: David Rich

Condensation

• The act or process of reducing a gas or vapor to a liquid or solid form.

Evaporation

• Process by which radiant energy from the sun turns liquid water into a gas (water vapor).

Transpiration

• The passage of watery vapor through the skin or through any membrane or pore.

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Accumulation• The act of gathering and collecting.

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Precipitation

• Falling products of condensation in the atmosphere, as rain, snow, or hail.

• The amount of rain, snow, hail, etc., that has fallen at a given place within a given period, usually expressed in inches or centimeters of water.

Snow

• A precipitation in the form of ice crystals, mainly of intricately branched, hexagonal form and often agglomerated into snowflakes, formed directly from the freezing of the water vapor in the air.

Rain

• Water that is condensed from the aqueous vapor in the atmosphere and falls to earth in drops more than 1/50 in.

Hail

• Showery precipitation in the form of irregular pellets or balls of ice more than 1/5 in.

Surface Runoff

• Surface runoff is water, from rain, snowmelt, or other sources, that flows over the land surface, and is a major component of the water cycle.