LET'S-READ-AND-FIND-OUT

SCIENCE

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All cloudsbig ones and little ones, gray ones and white
onesare made of billions of tiny drops of water. The drops
are called droplets, because they are so small.

If this is the size of a drop of water,

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a droplet would be just a tiny speck,
even smaller than this one.
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Water droplets come from water vapor. Water vapor is a gas.

Water vapor is made when water evaporates. That

means the water changes from a liquid to a gas.

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Most of the water vapor i n the air comes

from lakes, rivers, and oceans. It comes from
the leaves of plants, and from the wet ground.

When you breathe out, you put water vapor into

the air. Usually, you cannot see the water vapor.
But i t is there.

When cows, horses, dogs, and cats breathe out,

they put water vapor into the air, too. On a cold day,

You can make water vapor change to water.

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water.

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Sometimes the glass stays dry. That means there

is not much water vapor i n the air.
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The air holds the water vapor. Breezes carry i t from one
place to another.
Much of the vapor moves up and away from the earth.

A single droplet is so small you cannot see it. But

you can see a cloud. That's because there are millions
and millions and millions of water droplets i n a cloud.

f u l l o f t hem.
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and S p l a t t e r on { f
ground.

Sometimes there are only a few small raindrops

that fall slowly. It is drizzling.
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Sometimes the drops i n clouds freeze. These

raindrops become ice drops. This can happen even
on a hot summer day.

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That's because the clouds and water droplets are
high above the earth.
Many clouds are so high that i t is freezing cold.
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drops freeze'
into ice.

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As they are carried upward, more water collects on

the tiny bits of ice. When that water freezes, the drops
of ice have another layer on them.

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i The ice drops are now heavier, so once more they fall
/ toward the earth. But air moving away from the earth
may carry the ice drops upward again. Higher and higher
they go, and another layer of ice freezes onto them.

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The ice drops get heavier and heavier. They get so

heavy that the air can no longer carry them upward.

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So the ice drops fall to the earth.

It is raining ice.

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It evaporates from lakes,

rivers, and oceans.
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It evaporates from the

leaves of plants and from
the wet ground.

W When the water vapor cools, i t condenses.

The water vapor changes to water droplets,
and all together the droplets make clouds.

Water droplets join together to make water

drops. The drops fall to the earth from the clouds.

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