From light drizzles to heavy
downpours, rain is the stuff of life.
But, what would happen if a country’s
annual rainfall fell in one big drop?
- MASSIVE DROP
The UK receives around 1,200mm of rain per year. That
equates to 291km³ in total – more than four times the
volume of every lake and dam in the UK. If you could
form this into a single drop, it would be 8km across.
From a typical cloud height of 2,000m, this raindrop
would take about 30 seconds to fall and would be
travelling at speeds of 300km/h when it hits the ground.
DID YOU KNOW?
The rain on Venus is no
joke – it’s acid rain
and, even though the
planet has
thunderstorms, no
rain ever reaches the
ground – it evaporates
long before it can
reach the surface of the
planet.DID YOU KNOW?
The national currency of Botswana is the pula, a
word which also means rain in Setswana.DID YOU KNOW?
Rain has a particular smell
called petrichor, which
actually describes an oil
secreted from the Earth that
is released when it rains.DID YOU KNOW?
A raindrop isn’t actually globe-shaped,
but looks more like a hamburger bun!Nature