The water cycle school series 3

The Water Cycle — The Journey of a Drop of Water

The water we drink today may have travelled through rivers, clouds, glaciers, oceans and even living organisms over and over again.

The Sun heats water on Earth's surface, causing evaporation. Plants add water vapour through transpiration. Higher in the atmosphere, the vapour cools and condenses into tiny droplets, forming clouds. When the droplets become large enough, they return as precipitation—rain, snow or hail.

Some water flows into rivers and oceans; some enters the soil and groundwater. Eventually, the Sun begins the process again.

So water does not simply disappear.

The same water keeps travelling—changing its form, but not leaving the great cycle of nature.