{"id":15838,"date":"2026-06-13T05:24:48","date_gmt":"2026-06-12T23:54:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ibexaviation.com\/pilot-training\/?p=15838"},"modified":"2026-07-26T10:48:53","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T05:18:53","slug":"precipitation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ibexaviation.com\/pilot-training\/precipitation\/","title":{"rendered":"Precipitation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ibexaviation.com\/page-show\/aviation-meteorology\/m14-precipitation-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<h2>Theories of Precipitation<\/h2>\n<h3>Types of Precipitation<\/h3>\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ibexaviation.com\/page-show\/aviation-meteorology\/m14-precipitation-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Precipitation is a generic term that refers to liquid water droplets and solid water particles falling from clouds.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Droplet size and texture of precipitation:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Drizzle:<\/strong> Droplets between <strong>0.2 mm and 0.5 mm<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Rain:<\/strong> Droplets with a diameter of <strong>0.5 mm to 5 mm<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Showers:<\/strong> Water droplets with a diameter of <strong>5 mm or more<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Hail:<\/strong> Solid ice balls ranging from <strong>5 mm to 50 mm<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Snow:<\/strong> Ice crystals.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Sleet:<\/strong> Wet snowfall or a mixture of rain and snow.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Ice Pellets:<\/strong> Transparent pellets of ice.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Snow Grains:<\/strong> Very small ice crystals.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Condensation Theory of Precipitation<\/h3>\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ibexaviation.com\/page-show\/aviation-meteorology\/m14-precipitation-3.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Condensation is a small-scale process and explains only light drizzle from low clouds below the freezing level.<\/li>\n<li>Water droplets or ice crystals must become large and heavy enough to overcome the vertical air currents within clouds before they can fall as precipitation.<\/li>\n<li>According to the condensation theory, water vapour condenses into liquid water droplets, which grow sufficiently large to fall from the cloud.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Coalescence and Giant Nucleus Theory<\/h3>\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ibexaviation.com\/page-show\/aviation-meteorology\/m14-precipitation-4.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Coalescence Theory of precipitation is also a relatively small-scale process.<\/li>\n<li>In clouds extending below the freezing level, larger water droplets grow through collision and coalescence.<\/li>\n<li>Smaller droplets merge with larger droplets, increasing their size until they become heavy enough to fall as precipitation.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>Giant Nucleus Theory<\/strong> explains precipitation over the sea.<\/li>\n<li>Over oceans, salt particles and other hygroscopic nuclei absorb moisture, initiating the coalescence process.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Ice Crystal (Bergeron) Process<\/h3>\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ibexaviation.com\/page-show\/aviation-meteorology\/m14-precipitation-5.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Ice Crystal Theory, also known as the <strong>Bergeron Process<\/strong>, explains heavy rain or snowfall from clouds extending above the freezing level.<\/li>\n<li>In such clouds, supercooled water droplets deposit onto ice crystals through sublimation, causing the ice crystals to grow.<\/li>\n<li>Water droplets collide with and freeze upon contact with ice crystals because of their low temperature.<\/li>\n<li>As the growing ice crystals fall, they may partially melt, become sticky, combine with other ice crystals, and eventually fall as large snowflakes or raindrops.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Cloud Types and Precipitation<\/h3>\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ibexaviation.com\/page-show\/aviation-meteorology\/m14-precipitation-6.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Stratus (St):<\/strong> Produces drizzle.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Altostratus (As):<\/strong> Produces rain and snow.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Nimbostratus (Ns):<\/strong> Produces continuous precipitation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Towering Cumulus (TCu):<\/strong> Produces rain, showers, hail and snow.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cumulonimbus (Cb):<\/strong> Produces rain, showers, hail and snow.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cirrostratus (Cs):<\/strong> Produces snow at high altitudes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Conditions for Snow and Sleet<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Snow and sleet occur when:\n<ul>\n<li>The surface temperature is less than <strong>4\u00b0C<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>The temperature between the cloud and the ground remains below <strong>0\u00b0C<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Sleet is a mixture of rain and snow.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Timing of Precipitation<\/h3>\n<p>  <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/ibexaviation.com\/page-show\/aviation-meteorology\/m14-precipitation-7.jpg\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>In tropical regions (e.g., South India), maximum precipitation is generally expected during the afternoon due to strong surface heating.<\/li>\n<li>In subtropical regions (e.g., Northwest India), maximum rainfall often occurs during the morning because of winter western disturbances.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cloud Seeding<\/strong> involves spraying hygroscopic nuclei into clouds using specially equipped aircraft to enhance precipitation or disperse fog.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Cloudbursts<\/strong> refer to extremely heavy rainfall occurring over a short period, often leading to flash floods.<\/li>\n<li>A day is classified as a <strong>Rainy Day<\/strong> when the total rainfall recorded is more than <strong>2.5 mm<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Theories of Precipitation Types of Precipitation Precipitation is a generic term that refers to liquid water droplets and solid water particles falling from clouds. Droplet size and texture of precipitation: Drizzle: Droplets between 0.2 mm and 0.5 mm. Rain: Droplets with a diameter of 0.5 mm to 5 mm. Showers: Water droplets with a diameter of 5 mm or more. Hail: Solid ice balls ranging from 5 mm to 50 mm. Snow: Ice crystals. Sleet: Wet snowfall or a mixture of rain and snow. Ice Pellets: Transparent pellets of ice.&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"disable_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[358],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15838","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-aviation-meteorology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ibexaviation.com\/pilot-training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ibexaviation.com\/pilot-training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ibexaviation.com\/pilot-training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ibexaviation.com\/pilot-training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ibexaviation.com\/pilot-training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15838"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ibexaviation.com\/pilot-training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15838\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16687,"href":"https:\/\/ibexaviation.com\/pilot-training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15838\/revisions\/16687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ibexaviation.com\/pilot-training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ibexaviation.com\/pilot-training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ibexaviation.com\/pilot-training\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}