The Amazing Water Cycle

Every drop of water on Earth gets recycled: it evaporates into the sky, comes back down as rain or snow, and eventually evaporates again. That loop is called the water cycle, and it has four steps.

Step 1: Evaporation - Water Goes Up

The sun heats water in puddles, lakes, rivers, and oceans until it turns into a gas called water vapor — the same thing that happens when you boil water and watch steam rise off it. That vapor rises into the sky. This step is called evaporation.

Step 2: Condensation - Clouds Form

As water vapor rises, it cools. Once it is cold enough, it turns back into tiny water droplets or ice crystals, and those droplets and crystals join together to form clouds. This step is called condensation.

Step 3: Precipitation - Rain, Snow, and More

When clouds fill up with water droplets or ice crystals, they get heavy, and the water falls back to Earth. This is called precipitation, and it takes several forms:

• Rain: Water falling as liquid drops.
• Snow: Water falling as ice crystals.
• Sleet: Rain that freezes as it falls.
• Hail: Balls of ice that fall from thunderstorms.

Step 4: Collection - Water Returns

The water that falls to Earth as rain, snow, sleet, or hail flows into rivers, lakes, and oceans, or soaks into the ground and becomes groundwater. Then the cycle starts all over again.

Put the cycle back together

The four steps always happen in the same order, and then start again. Here they are, shuffled. Can you put them back?

Right now, somewhere above you, water is evaporating, cooling, and turning back into a cloud — the same four steps you just put in order, running on repeat. Heating the water is only half the job: nothing falls back down until that vapor cools again.