Precipitation Types- Rain

• Rain - drop diameter > 0.5 mm

• drizzle - drop diameter < 0.5 mm (largely produced by stratus)

• virga - rain leaving cloud base and evaporates before hitting the ground

  • often visible as evaporating streaks of precipitation

Rain Events:

• Showers - localized, sometime heavy rain events

  • usually associated with Cb

  • sometimes called a "cloud burst"

• continuous rain - from nimbostratus....