What is a raindrop made of?
Today, Mika and I were testing who could run the fastest in the park. The air smelled fresh, but the sky suddenly turned an angry, dark gray. Just then, a huge, cold water drop landed on my forehead, and we knew the rain had started.
I quickly reached into my bag and opened my enormous, colorful umbrella. It’s my favorite, with Mika’s cheerful, funny face printed all over it! We had just set up our shelter when Beril came running toward us, diving under our umbrella with a laugh. “Make room for me, I got caught in the storm!” she said.
Huddled under the umbrella, listening to the rhythm of the rain, I asked Beril the question stuck in my mind: “Beril, how does so much water stay suspended in the sky? And why does it fall so fast? It’s just water, right?”. Beril pointed to a drop hitting the fabric of our huge umbrella. “You’re right about the water, Mia. But every drop has a special birth story. The sky is full of invisible water vapor, just like the steam rising from boiling water in the kitchen. This vapor needs something to cling to in order to turn into a liquid drop; it needs a starting point,” Beril whispered. “It’s like needing to send an invitation to a party. Inside every drop, there is a tiny ‘first invitation’ that attracts the vapor.”
“An invitation?” I asked. “An invisible invitation?”
“Exactly!” Beril smiled. “The technical name in science is a condensation nucleus. It sounds very fancy, but it can be a tiny speck of dust, a tiny salt crystal from the ocean, or even pollen from flowers. These are the sticky centers where clouds begin to form.”
“So, there’s dirt inside the drops?” I asked, scrunching my face.
“No, it is not real dirt,” Beril quickly corrected. “The cold water vapor gathers around these tiny parts forming very small water droplets – the water vapor condenses on the condensation nuclei. Millions of these condensation nuclei and water droplets come together to create the big cloud you see.”
“But then how do they fall? Can’t the cloud hold them?” I asked, looking up at Mika’s cute face on my umbrella.
“It can’t, because they grow,” Beril demonstrated, putting her hands together and pulling them apart. “The tiny droplets inside the cloud bump into each other and cling together tightly. It’s exactly like combining small pieces of snow to make one big snowball. When they grow big and heavy enough they fall to the earth, just like now!” Beril concluded.
I finally understood! The rain isn’t just water; it’s the result of those tiny droplets hugging each other until they get too heavy. That’s the brilliant secret of the raindrop and how the cloud finally decides to give us a shower.
Beril winked. “Next time it rains, remember that the drop is the end of a long, adventurous journey for a tiny condensation nucleus in the sky. Come on, let’s go get some hot chocolate before we get wet!”
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Text: Beril Aydin, Illustration: Patrizia Schoch