My Explanation Writing

How the Water Cycle Works

By Mia

I am learning to inform my audience through an explanation.

When you take a shower, drink some water or water your plants, have you ever thought about where that water comes from? That water may have come from a cloud, a snowflake or maybe even the ocean. The way that water gets to your tap is because of a process called the water cycle. Did you know that 97% of earth’s water is salt and the other 3% is fresh water but unfortunately only 1% of that water is drinkable as the rest is in ice caps. A cycle is a series of steps that repeat over and over again. There are three main stages of the water cycle is precipitation, evaporation and condensation, starting off with precipitation.

Precipitation is when water droplets fall out of the sky and it can be seen as rain, snow or hail. Rain that falls directly onto rivers is called streamflow. Rain that falls onto land is called surface runoff. Infiltration is when the ground soaks in the water that falls onto it. All the water that has come from mountains will end up in a lake or river. The other water on footpaths or a road for example, will just end up in a puddle. When the sun starts coming out that is when the water will start to add heat causing evaporation, which leads to the next stage in the cycle.

Evaporation is the process where water changes into a gas or vapor by the heat of the sun. Water vapor is actually invisible so if you think it is that thing that comes out of your kettle, it is not, that is steam. The amount of evaporation depends on the temperature and how much water there is to evaporate. That water vapor will start to go high into the sky and then it will all start to condense together and that is when the next stage comes which is condensation.

Condensation is when water vapor gets cool and becomes visible water vapor which results in clouds. Condensation happens when the warm air cools down and the water vapour in the warm air condenses and turns into liquid. This is what happens in clouds. The higher in the sky the water vapor goes the colder it gets. Wind moves clouds into colder air and the water droplets in them merge which means they grow bigger and heavier until they are so heavy that they fall again as snow or hail. So now we are back to the beginning of the cycle.

The water cycle is an interesting process that happens everyday and everywhere. Precipitation is when water falls out of the sky, evaporation is when it turns into a vapor and lastly condensation when the water vapor gets cool and turns back into a cloud. The same amount of water that was on earth millions of years ago is the same now because all this water has been recycled. What a cool adventure this water has been through just to get to your tap. Think about that the next time you take a drink of water.