There is as much water in the world today as there were thousands of years ago. In fact, it's the same water. The
water that we drink contains the same molecules that the dinosaurs drank. Perhaps Columbus sailed across it.
The earth naturally recycles water. The Water Cycle is controlled by the sun. Heat and energy from the sun causes the
world's oceans, lakes, and pools in your backyard to warm and evaporate.
When water is heated, it changes from a liquid to a gas called water vapor. This process is called water evaporation.
When water evaporates, it rises into the cooler air, collects, and forms clouds. The water vapor cools down and
changes back into liquid water called condensation.
As more and more water vapor cools in the clouds, water droplets begin to form. The
water droplets become larger and get so big that the swirling winds in the atmosphere can no longer hold them up.
The drops fall from the sky.
These droplets are called precipitation. Precipitation comes down to the earth in the form of rain, snow, sleet, or hail
depending on the conditions in the atmosphere.
The water then runs off into lakes, rivers, streams, and other bodies of water.
More water is heated by the sun, the water evaporates and the whole cycle begins again.