Читать книгу Weather For Dummies - John D. Cox - Страница 69

If there is one substance in the atmosphere more involved with weather than any other, it is the gaseous form of water. At its most concentrated, water vapor makes up only 4 percent of the atmosphere, and yet, almost no important weather takes place without it.

Without water vapor to condense into droplets of water or ice crystals as air rises and cools, no clouds would form in the sky.

Without water vapor, there would be no precipitation — no rain and no snow. The cycling of water through the environment, as described in Chapter 4, would come to a screeching halt without water vapor in the atmosphere.

The condensation of water vapor leads to the release of latent heat, which is described earlier in this chapter in the sidebar “How to cause a storm.” Latent heat supplies the atmosphere with the energy that is important in the formation of storms, especially thunderstorms and hurricanes.

Water vapor also is a potent gas in the greenhouse effect, which is outlined in more detail in Chapter 14. Like the glass top of a greenhouse, it absorbs infrared heat emissions from Earth’s surface, preventing it from radiating back into space.