The Water Cycle, with Some Epicness Thrown In
Well, this is it. The last blog of the year! My last blog will be all about . . .the water cycle!!
Here's a visual:
The water cycle has 4 stages. Stage 1 is . . . drumroll, please. . . . evaporation!
The Sun heats up the water that is hanging around on Earth and causes it to evaporate, which just means it changes from a liquid to a gas.
The gas it changes into is called water vapor. The water vapor rises into the sky and is collected together to form clouds.
Once it forms clouds, the water vapor cools down and turns into water again. This is called condensation, and it's Stage 2 of the water cycle.
This is obviously a picture of condensation on a glass and not in the clouds, but you get the point.
Stage 3 is called precipitation, and pretty much everyone knows what that is. Precipitation is basically any water that falls from the sky, so it can be in the form of rain, snow, hail, etc.
The last stage in the water cycle, or Stage 4, is called collection.
Collection simply means that the precipitation that falls to the Earth is collected in streams, lakes and oceans.
Ok, so on to a subject that is pretty much a bummer. The Earth is experiencing climate changes right now that have the potential to affect the water cycle.
Some climate changes are natural, (like solar variability), and some are either unnatural or are being accelerated by the choices of man, (like greenhouse gases). The greatest impact may be seen in water vapor concentrations, precipitation patterns, clouds, and runoff and stream flows.
Some areas may experience a lot of flooding, while others may experience severe droughts. Here's why.
Greenhouse gases are causing the lower atmosphere to become warmer. As the atmosphere becomes warmer, evaporation will increase, meaning that more moisture will be hanging around in the atmosphere. This will cause a lot more precipitation to fall, and since it will be warmer, it will fall simply as rain. The intensity of the rainfall will increase, which means certain parts of the Earth will experience intense and extreme storms.
This intense precipitation, however, will probably fall for a shorter amount of time than it used to.
The intense storms plus the runoff (or overflow) from streams may cause a bunch of flooding in places where we never had any before.
The increase in temperatures also causes the previously-fallen snow to melt sooner than it used to. So the short but intense rainfall and the quicker melting of the snow could mean that, by the end of summer and into fall, there won't be enough fresh water around to cover our water needs.
Warmer temperatures that cause evaporation may also increase the chances of drought in some areas.
So, to sum it up, we may experience intense storms, lots of flooding, lots of droughts, and have less water to use by the end of summer and into fall. Yea!
Sorry to end this blog and the year on such a bummer, but that's science, people!
Thanks for reading my blog.
Here's a visual:
The water cycle has 4 stages. Stage 1 is . . . drumroll, please. . . . evaporation!
The Sun heats up the water that is hanging around on Earth and causes it to evaporate, which just means it changes from a liquid to a gas.
The gas it changes into is called water vapor. The water vapor rises into the sky and is collected together to form clouds.
Once it forms clouds, the water vapor cools down and turns into water again. This is called condensation, and it's Stage 2 of the water cycle.
This is obviously a picture of condensation on a glass and not in the clouds, but you get the point.
Stage 3 is called precipitation, and pretty much everyone knows what that is. Precipitation is basically any water that falls from the sky, so it can be in the form of rain, snow, hail, etc.
The last stage in the water cycle, or Stage 4, is called collection.
Collection simply means that the precipitation that falls to the Earth is collected in streams, lakes and oceans.
Ok, so on to a subject that is pretty much a bummer. The Earth is experiencing climate changes right now that have the potential to affect the water cycle.
Some climate changes are natural, (like solar variability), and some are either unnatural or are being accelerated by the choices of man, (like greenhouse gases). The greatest impact may be seen in water vapor concentrations, precipitation patterns, clouds, and runoff and stream flows.
Some areas may experience a lot of flooding, while others may experience severe droughts. Here's why.
Greenhouse gases are causing the lower atmosphere to become warmer. As the atmosphere becomes warmer, evaporation will increase, meaning that more moisture will be hanging around in the atmosphere. This will cause a lot more precipitation to fall, and since it will be warmer, it will fall simply as rain. The intensity of the rainfall will increase, which means certain parts of the Earth will experience intense and extreme storms.
This intense precipitation, however, will probably fall for a shorter amount of time than it used to.
The intense storms plus the runoff (or overflow) from streams may cause a bunch of flooding in places where we never had any before.
The increase in temperatures also causes the previously-fallen snow to melt sooner than it used to. So the short but intense rainfall and the quicker melting of the snow could mean that, by the end of summer and into fall, there won't be enough fresh water around to cover our water needs.
Warmer temperatures that cause evaporation may also increase the chances of drought in some areas.
So, to sum it up, we may experience intense storms, lots of flooding, lots of droughts, and have less water to use by the end of summer and into fall. Yea!
Sorry to end this blog and the year on such a bummer, but that's science, people!
Thanks for reading my blog.
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