Weather Resources Weather Basics Weather Phenomenon Weather Forecasting Frequently Asked Ques. It also contains water vapor and dust particles. It also protects the life on earth from harmful solar radiation either by reflecting them back or by absorbing them. Any liquid or solid form of water particles that falls from the atmosphere and reaches the Earth's surface is known as precipitation. Precipitation can occurs in a variety of forms such as drizzle, hail, rain, sleet or snow.
Rain can also begin as ice crystals that collect each other to form large snowflakes.
As the falling snow passes through the freezing level into warmer air, the flakes melt and collapse into raindrops. When small ice crystals inside the clouds collide and stick together they form Snowflakes. Most snowflakes melt on their way to the ground and fall as rain. But only when the air near the ground is cold enough snowflakes fall as snow. As the snowflakes fall, liquid water freezes onto them forming ice pellets that continue to grow as more and more droplets are accumulated.