The WATER CYCLE: NATURES WAY OF RECYCLING WATER

You probably already know that water is one of the earth's natural resources. It is a precious resource - one that we need to live. Our bodies must have drinking water to survive. But there are many other important uses for water. Take a moment to think about how many ways you use water. You may have realized that you use water everyday for many, many different reasons. Water is not only used for cooling, bathing, brushing your teeth, washing clothes, flushing the toilet, watering plants and grass, washing cars or even the dog. In other words, water is in great demand!

It may appear that there is more water each time it rains. However, rainwater is actually water that nature has reused through a process called the water cycle. The water cycle is nature’s way of reusing (or recycling) water for further use. As you read more about the water cycle, refer to the diagram. The water cycle consists of three stages: evaporation, condensation and precipitation.

The water cycle starts with the sun. Heat from the sun causes water to heat up until it disappears, or evaporates. You may have seen a similar process while boiling water in a pot. When water boils, steam is created and it raises out of the pot. Just as steam escapes from the pot, so does water from oceans or lakes. As the evaporated water floats into the sky and form with clouds, the air begins to cool down and expand. The cool air condenses in the clouds and becomes very heavy until it cannot stay in the clouds any longer. This is called condensation.

As the water condenses, it becomes heavy until the clouds can no longer support the weight. The water then falls out of the clouds back down to the ground in a form of precipitation. Depending on the temperature outside, precipitation can be rain, sleet, hail or snow.