This week’s weather question is, what is the water cycle?

The Water Cycle is an integral part of weather and the movement of water globally. The water cycle is also known as the hydrologic cycle.

Water is constantly changing states between liquid, vapor and ice and has no official starting point so we will start with precipitation. Precipitation falls from the sky usually in a liquid form as rain, but can fall as sleet or snow.

Now the rain runoffs the surface of the Earth and some water seeps into the Earth and stays there for millions of years. But now the water on the surface of the earth will evaporate back into the atmosphere. Plants also aid in this process through transpiration.

Once the liquid water is evaporated into a vapor, we get cloud formations to form from the process of condensation. And now we’re back to the precipitation stage where vapor is turned back into a liquid.

If you have a weather question, email Meteorologist Cody Nickel at pnickel@wrbl.com.