I Can’t Sleep - Rain | Gentle Bedtime Reading for Sleep

Episode Date: July 4, 2019

Relax with calm bedtime reading about rain to ease insomnia and sleepless nights. This soothing episode explores how rain forms, its role in weather and ecosystems, and the beauty it brings to cultures and daily life. Benjamin’s peaceful cadence transforms the science and wonder of rainfall into a calming journey of discovery. With no whispering or hypnosis—just calm, fact-filled storytelling—you’ll find stress melting away, your mind quieting, and rest arriving naturally. Press play, imagine the gentle rhythm of rain, and drift into sleep. Want More? Request a Topic: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/request-a-topic Ad-Free Episodes: https://icantsleep.supportingcast.fm/ Shop Sleep-Friendly Products: https://www.icantsleeppodcast.com/sponsors Join the Discussion on Discord: https://discord.gg/myhGhVUhn7 This content is derived from the Wikipedia article on Rain, available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike (CC BY-SA) license. Read the full article: Wikipedia – Rain. Happy sleeping! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're listening to a Glassbox media podcast. What if I told you that most of the modern day self-help advice you've been hearing could actually make you worse? The key to a better life isn't about feel-good gimmicks that sound catchy. The Mentally Stronger Podcast gives you access to a licensed therapist who shares science-backed tools that will actually change your life. Hi, I'm Amy Morin, psychotherapist, mental strength trainer, and international best-selling author. In each episode, we cover research-back strategies, like how to stop relying on willpower and start creating habits for lasting change. And the five mental strength-building exercises you can do from your couch.

I also speak to world-class experts like Dr. Nicole Kane, who shares how to permanently heal anxiety by addressing the root cause. With over 200 episodes in our catalog, this podcast is for you if you're ready to crush self-doubt, conquer challenges, and become stronger than ever with therapist-approved strategies that can change your life. Listen to Mentally Stronger with Therapist Amy Morin, wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to the I Can't Sleep podcast, where I read random articles from across the web to bore you to sleep with my soothing voice. I'm your host, Benjamin Boster. Today's episode is from a Wikipedia article titled Rain. Rain is liquid water in the form of droplets that have condensed

from atmospheric water vapor and then become heavy enough to fall under gravity. Rain is a major component of the water cycle and is responsible for depositing most of the fresh water on the earth. It provides suitable conditions for many types of ecosystems, as well as water. for hydroelectric power plants and crop irrigation. The major cause of rain production is moisture moving along three-dimensional zones of temperature and moisture contrasts known as weather fronts. If enough moisture and upward motion is present, precipitation falls from convective clouds, those with strong upward vertical motion, such as cumulinimbus, thunder clouds, which can

organize into narrow rain bands. In mountainous areas, heavy precipitation is possible where upslope flow is maximized within windward sides of the terrain, at elevation, which forces most air to condense and fall out as rainfall along the sides of the mountains. On the leeward side of the mountains, desert climates can exist due to the dry air caused by down. downslope flow, which causes heating and drying of the air mass. The movement of the monsoon trough, or intertropical convergence zone, brings rainy seasons to savanna climbs. The urban heat island effect leads to increased rainfall, both in amounts and intensity, downwind of cities. global warming is also causing changes in the precipitation pattern globally,

including wetter conditions across eastern North America and drier conditions in the tropics. Antarctica is the driest continent. The globally averaged annual precipitation over land is 715 millimeters. But over the whole Earth, it is much higher at 990. millimeters. Climate classification systems such as the Kirpen classification system use average annual rainfalls to help differentiate between differing climate regimes. Rainfall is measured using rain gauges. Rainfall amounts can be estimated by weather radar. It is also known or suspected on other planets where it may be composed of methane, neon,

sulfuric acid, or even iron rather than water. Air contains water vapor, and the amount of water in a given mass of dry air, known as the mixing ratio, is measured in grams of water per kilogram of dry air. The amount of moisture in air is also commonly reported as relative humidity, which is the percentage of the total water vapor air can hold at a particular air temperature. How much water vapor a parcel of air can contain before it becomes saturated, 100% relative humidity, and forms into a cloud, a group of visible and tiny water and ice particles suspended above the Earth's surface depends on its temperature.

warmer air can contain more water vapor than cooler air before becoming saturated. Therefore, one way to saturate a parcel of air is to cool it. The dew point is the temperature to which a parcel must be cooled in order to become saturated. There are four main mechanisms for cooling the air to its dew point. Adiabatic cooling, conductive cooling, Radiational cooling, and evaporative cooling. Adiabatic cooling occurs when air rises and expands. The air can rise due to convection,

large-scale atmospheric motions, or a physical barrier such as a mountain or a graphic lift. Conductive cooling occurs when the air comes into contact with a colder surface, usually by being blown from one surface to another. For example, from a liquid water surface to colder land. Radiational cooling occurs due to the emission of infrared radiation, either by the air or by the surface underneath. Evaporative cooling occurs when moisture is added to the air through evaporation,

which forces the air temperature to cool to its surface. wet bulb temperature or until it reaches saturation. The main ways water vapor is added to the air are wind convergence into areas of upward motion, precipitation or Virgo falling from above, daytime heating evaporating water from the surface of oceans, daytime heating evaporating water from the surface of oceans, water bodies, or wet land,

transpiration from plants, cool or dry air moving over warmer water, and lifting air over mountains. Water vapor normally begins to condense on condensation nuclei, such as dust, ice, and salt in order to form clouds. Elevated portions of weather fronts, which are three-dimensional in nature, force broad areas of upward motion within the Earth's atmosphere, which form cloud decks such as altostratus or cirrostratus. Stratus is a stable cloud deck, which tends to form when a cool, stable air mass is trapped underneath a warm air mass. It can also form due to the lifting of advection fog during breezy conditions.

Coalescence occurs when water droplets fuse, to create larger water droplets. Air resistance typically causes the water droplets in a cloud to remain stationary. When air turbulence occurs, water droplets collide producing larger droplets. As these larger water droplets descend, coalescence continues so that drops become heavy enough to overcome air resistance and fall as rain. Coalescence generally happens most often in clouds above freezing and is also known as the warm rain process. In clouds below freezing, when ice crystals gain enough mass,

they begin to fall. This generally requires more mass than coalescence when occurring between the crystal and neighboring water droplets. This process is temperature to be. as super-cooled water droplets only exist in a cloud that is below freezing. In addition, because of the great temperature difference between cloud and ground level, these ice crystals may melt as they fall and become rain. Rain drops have sizes ranging from 0.1 to 9mm mean diameter,

but develop a tendency to break up at larger sizes. Smaller drops are called cloud droplets. and their shape is spherical. As a raindrop increases in size, its shape becomes more oblate with its largest cross-section facing the oncoming airflow. Large raindrops

become increasingly flattened on the bottom, like hamburger buns. Very large ones are shaped like parachutes. Contrary to popular belief, their shape does not resemble a teardrop. The biggest raindrops, on Earth were recorded over Brazil on the Marshall Islands in 2004. Some of them were as large as 10 millimeters.

The large size is explained by condensation on large smoke particles or by collisions between drops in small regions with particularly high content of liquid water. Rain drops associated with melting hail tend to be larger than other raindrops. Intensity and duration of rainfall are usually inversely. related, i.e. high-intensity storms are likely to be of short duration, and low-intensity storms can have a long duration. Rain drops impact at their terminal velocity, which is greater for larger drops due to their larger mass to drag ratio. At sea level and without wind,

impacts at 2 meters per second, or 7.2 kilometers per hour, while large 5-millimeter drops, impact at around 9 meters per second or 32 kilometers per hour. Rain falling on loosely packed material such as newly fallen ash can produce dimples that can be fossilized called raindrop impressions. The air density dependence of the maximum raindrop diameter, together with fossil raindrop imprints, has been used to constrain the density of the air 2.7 billion years ago. The sound of raindrops hitting water is caused by bubbles of air oscillating underwater.

The M-E-T-A-R-Code for rain is R-A, while the coding for rain showers is S-H-R-A. In certain conditions, precipitation may fall from a cloud, but then evaporate or sublime before reaching the ground. This is termed Ferga, and is more often seen in hot and dry cloud. climates. Stratiform, a broad shield of precipitation with a relatively similar intensity, and dynamic precipitation, convective precipitation, which is showery in nature with large changes in intensity overshore distances, occur as a consequence of slow ascent of air in synoptic systems on the order of centimeters per second. Such as in the vicinity of cold fronts, and near and poleward of surface warm fronts.

Similar ascent is seen around tropical cyclones outside the eye wall and in comma head precipitation patterns around mid-latitude cyclones. A wide variety of weather can be found along an occluded front, with thunderstorms possible, but usually their passage is associated with a drying of the air mass. occluded fronts usually form around mature low-pressure areas. What separates rainfall from other precipitation types, such as ice pellets and snow, is the presence of a thick layer of air aloft, which is above the melting point of air,

which melts the frozen precipitation well before it reaches the ground. If there is a shallow near-surface layer that is below freezing, freezing rain, rain which freezes on contact with surfaces in sub-freezing environments, will result. Hail becomes an increasingly infrequent occurrence when the freezing level within the atmosphere exceeds 3,400 meters above ground level. Convective rain or showery precipitation occurs from convective clouds. e.g. cumulinimbus or cumulus congestus. It falls as showers with rapidly changing intensity. Convective precipitation falls over a certain area for a relatively short time, as convective clouds have limited horizontal extent.

Most precipitation in the tropics appears to be convective. However, it has been suggested that stratus form precipitate, also occurs. Grauple and hail indicate convection. In mid-latitudes, convection precipitation is intermittent and often associated with barriclinic boundaries, such as cold fronts, squall lines, and warm fronts. Horographic precipitation occurs on the windward side of mountains and is caused by the rising air motion of the large-scale flow of moist air across the mountain ridge. resulting in adiabatic cooling and condensation.

In mountainous parts of the world subjected to relatively consistent winds, for example the trade winds, a more moist climate usually prevails on the windward side of the mountain than on the leeward or downwind side. Moisture is removed by orographic lift, leaving drier air, see catabatic wind, on the descending and general warming leeward side where a rain shadow is observed. In Hawaii, Mount Wa'i Ali Ali on the island of Kauai is notable for its extreme rainfall,

as it is amongst the places in the world with the highest levels of rainfall, with 9,500 millimeters. Systems known as Kona storms affect the state with heavy rains between October and April. Local climates vary considerably on each island due to their typography, divisible into windward, ko'uilu, and leeward, Kona, regions, based upon location relative to the higher mountains. Windward sides face the east to northeast trade winds and receive much more rainfall. Leward sides are drier and sunnier, with less rain and less cloud cover. In South America, the Andes Mountain Range blocks specific moisture that arrives in the continent, resulting in a desert-like climate just downwind across western Argentina.

The Sierra Nevada Range creates the same effect in North America, forming the Great Basin and Mojave Deserts. The wet or rainy season is the time of year covering one or more months when most of the average annual rainfall in a region falls. The term green season is also sometimes used as a euphemism by tourist authorities. Areas with wet seasons are dispersed across portions of the tropics and subtropics. Savannah climates in areas with monsoon regimes have wet summers and dry winters. Tropical rainforests technically do not have dry or wet seasons, since their rainfall is

equally distributed throughout the year. Some areas with pronounced rainy seasons will see a break in rainfall mid-season, when the intertropical convergence zone or monsoon trough move poleward of their location during the middle of the warm season. When the wet season occurs during the warm season or summer, rain falls mainly during the late afternoon and early evening hours. The wet season is a time when air quality improves, fresh water quality improves, and vegetation grows significantly. Tropical cyclones, a source of very heavy rainfall, consist of large air masses several hundred miles across, with low pressure at the center, and with winds blowing inward towards the center in either a clockwise direction, southern hemisphere, or counterclockwise, northern hemisphere. Although cyclones can take an enormous toll in lives and personal property, they may be important

factors in the precipitation regimes of places they impact, as they may bring much-needed precipitation to otherwise dry regions. Areas in their path can receive a year's worth of rainfall from a tropical cyclone passage. The fine particulate matter produced by car exhaust and other human sources of pollution forms cloud condensation nuclei, leads to the production of clouds and increases the likelihood of rain. As commuters and commercial traffic causes pollution to build up over the course of the week, the likelihood of rain increases. It peaks by Saturday, after five days of weekday pollution has been built up. In heavy populated areas that are near the coast, such as the United States

eastern seaboard. The effect can be dramatic. There is a 22% higher chance of rain on Saturdays than on Mondays. The urban heat island effect warms cities 0.6 to 5.6 degrees Celsius above surrounding suburbs and rural areas. This extra heat leads to greater upward motion, which can induce additional shower and thunderstorm activity. Rainfall rates downward of cities are increased between 48% and 116%. Partly as a result of this warming, monthly rainfall is about 28% greater, between 32 to 64 kilometers downwind of cities

compared with upwind. Some cities induce a total precipitation increase of 51%. Increasing temperatures tend to increase evaporation, which can lead to more precipitation. precipitation generally increased over land north of 30 degrees north from 1900 through 2005, but has declined over the tropics since the 1970s. Globally, there has been no statistically significant overall trend in precipitation over the past century, although trends have varied widely by region and over time.

Eastern portions of North and South America, Northern Europe, and Northern and Central Asia have become wetland. The Sahel, the Mediterranean, Southern Africa, and parts of Southern Asia have become drier. There have been an increase in the number of heavy precipitation events over many areas during the past century, as well as an increase since the 1970s in the prevalence of droughts, especially in the tropics and subtropics. Changes in precipitation and evaporation over the oceans are suggested by the decreased salinity of mid and high latitude waters, implying more precipitation, along with increased

salinity in lower latitudes, implying less precipitation and or more evaporation. Over the contiguous United States, total annual precipitation increased at an average rate of 6.1% since 1900, was the greatest increases within the east-north central climate region, 11.6% per century, and the south, 11.1%. Hawaii was the only region to show a decrease, negative 9.25%. Analysis of 65 years of United States of America rainfall records show the lower 48 states have an increase in heavy downpours since 1950. The largest increases are in the northeast and Midwest, which in the past decade have seen 31 and 60. more heavy downpours compared to the 1950s.

Rhode Island is the state with the largest increase, 104%. McAllen, Texas is a city with the largest increase, 700%. Heavy downpour in the analysis are the days where total precipitation exceeded the top 1% of all rain and snow days during the years, 1950 to 2014. The most successful attempts at influencing weather involve cloud seeding, which include techniques used to increase winter precipitation over mountains and suppress hail.