Imagine the sun shining down on the water in the sea. The sun provides lots of energy in the form of heat and will warm up not only the water in the sea but water anywhere including rivers, streams, reservoirs, ponds and even puddles in playgrounds and gardens. This energy allows the water cycle to keep on going so that it never stops. As this is a natural process it is known as the Natural Water Cycle.
The Natural Water Cycle:
1: As the sun shines down on the water it warms it up and the water starts to evaporate. This is called EVAPORATION.
2: When water starts to evaporate some of it turns into WATER VAPOUR. The water vapour rises up into the sky where it meets cooler air. This causes CONDENSATION to occur as the cooler air makes the water vapour turn back to water.
Hence the water vapour is said to condense back to water.
3: As the water vapour condenses it forms millions of tiny droplets which we see as clouds. The clouds do not stay still. In fact they move, helped along by the wind.
4: The clouds may eventually travel over higher ground which forces them to rise higher into the air.
5: As the clouds rise higher into the sky something very interesting happens. The droplets of water start to get bigger. As they get bigger they may bump into each other and stick together to make even bigger droplets. These droplets gradually become bigger and heavier until eventually they are too heavy to float around in the sky. And so they fall down out of the sky as rain. This is called PRECIPITATION.
6: The rain falls down onto the ground. If it falls on very high ground such as hills and mountains it may freeze to form ice caps. The melting ice and the water running off the top of the hills and mountains may form streams which work their way down the side of the land. The streams may meet up to form a river and the river will then carry the water back to the sea.
7: When the water returns to the sea the water cycle starts all over again.
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