Precipitation Precipitation In meteorology, precipitation is any product of the condensation of atmospheric water vapor that falls under gravity. The main forms of precipitation include drizzle, rain, sleet, snow, graupel and hail. Precipitation occurs when a portion of the atmosphere becomes saturated with water vapor, so that the water condenses and "precipitates". Thus, fog and mist are not precipitation but suspensions, because the water vapor does not condense sufficiently to precipitate. Two processes, possibly acting together, can lead to air becoming saturated: cooling the air or adding water vapor to the air. Precipitation forms as smaller droplets coalesce via collision with
Hail spike the multiple path at a later time than the energy that came back directly from the hail to the radar. Both are however on the same radial angle from the radar as the antenna did not have the time to turn significantly. The multipath echoes are then analyzed on the radar display as echoes extending in a radial direction behind the actual location of the hail/heavy rain core. The loss of energy by due to multiple reflections means weaker return echoes. The hail spike region has thus comparatively quite weaker echoes than the echoes directly from the hail or heavy